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The Secret Wireless 

or 

THE SPY HUNT OF THE 
CAMP BRADY PATROL 


By 

LEWIS E. THEISS 

ILLUSTRATED BY 

FRANK T. MERRILL 



W. A. WILDE COMPANY 


BOSTON 


CHICAGO 












Copyrighted , Ipl8, 

By W. A. Wilde Company 
All rights reserved 

The Secret Wireless 


APR 24 !9i9 

©a A 5252 i 2 


| 


WALTER K. RHODES, A.M., E.E., 

Professor of Electro-Technics 
in Bucknell University, 

TO WHOSE KINDLY HELPFULNESS IS DUE 
WHATEVER OF TECHNICAL MERIT THERE 
MAY BE IN THIS AND COMPANION STORIES 
OF THE “WIRELESS,” 


Book f# JDtDtcattD 













V 














Contents 


I. What Came of Henry’s Idea . . 9 

II. Henry Overcomes an Obstacle . . 18 

III. The Wireless Patrol Prepares for 

Action.27 

IV. The Scene of Action .... 35 

V. The Message in Cipher . . . • 55 

VI. A New Danger Point .... 68 

VII. Confusion Worse Confounded . . 79 

VIII. Where Money Talked .... 100 

IX. A P'resh Start.114 

X. The Pursuit in the Dark . . .130 

XI. An Unsuccessful Search . . .148 

XII. Another Obstacle . . . .163 

XIII. What Henry Discovered . . .174 

XIV. The Riddle Solved . . . .189 

XV. Another Mystery Unraveled . . 202 

XVI. An Unexpected Message . . .216 

XVII. A Change in Ciphers .... 224 

XVIII. Too Late.234 

XIX. The Enemy Escapes .... 249 

XX. A Clue from the Air .... 270 

XXI. The Capture of the Spies . . . 280 

XXII. A Task Accomplished . . . . 305 


7 






The Secret Wireless 


CHAPTER I 

WHAT CAME OF HENRYKS IDEA 

TTENRY HARPER was sitting in the door- 
A A way of the workshop in his father’s back 
yard, where the Camp Brady Wireless Club 
made their headquarters. He was reading the 
morning newspaper. Suddenly he sprang to 
his feet. His face grew black. His free hand 
clenched. 

“ That’s terrible! ” he exclaimed. “ Terrible! ” 
He walked across the shop, spread the news¬ 
paper on the bench and began to read aloud the 
big head-lines that had so aroused him. 

LEAK IN NAYY DEPARTMENT 
Germans Knew of Departure of Transport Fleet 

First Contingent of Pershing 1 s Men Attached by Waiting 
Submarines 

“ It’s terrible, terrible!” repeated Henry. 

“ Their spies are everywhere. They stop at 
9 


10 


THE SECEET WIRELESS 


nothing. Who could have been villain enough 
to give them the information? It is terrible!” 

In his agitation Henry began to pace up and 
down the floor of the shop. His face grew 
blacker and blacker as he brooded over the story 
of treachery. Though Henry was not yet 
eighteen, he was affected far more deeply by the 
story than most boys of his age w T ould have been. 
For when the Camp Brady Wireless Club, of 
which Henry was president, had been practising 
the previous summer, Henry had been called 
upon to replace one of Uncle Sam’s radio men 
who was suddenly stricken with appendicitis, and 
Henry had taken the operator’s oath of fidelity 
to his government. So to him treachery ap¬ 
peared doubly black. 

For some moments he paced up and down the 
shop. Suddenly he stopped short. A new idea 
had come to him. 

“ How did they get the news to Germany? ” 
he asked aloud. “ Both the cables and the mails 
are censored—and besides the mails would be too 
slow. It must have been the wireless. Can 
there be traitors in the wireless service, too? ” 


WHAT CAME OF HENRY’S IDEA 11 

Henry was silent a moment, his brow wrinkled 
in thought. “Never!” he cried suddenly. 
“ Uncle Sam’s radio men are true blue. It’s a 
secret wireless! A secret wireless! The Ger¬ 
mans have got a hidden station somewhere.” 

The black look left his face. The scowl was 
replaced by a gleam of joy. “ That means a job 
for us! ” he cried. “ The wireless patrol can help 
find that station, just as we found the German 
dynamiters at Elk City.” 

For when the wireless patrol had been at Camp 
Brady only a few weeks previously, acting as 
official operators for the commander of the 
troops guarding that section of the country, Roy 
Mercer had picked an innocent-looking message 
out of the air one night and by accident had found 
a code message in it revealing a German plot to 
dynamite a great dam and destroy a munition 
city; and later the wireless patrol had run down 
the dynamiters themselves in the very nick of 
time, after the state police had failed to find 
them, and had saved the city. 

With Henry, to think was to act. “ I’ll write 
Captain Hardy at once,” he said to himself. 


12 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Captain Hardy was a young physician who 
had been leader of the club of boys that had 
camped on his father’s farm near old Fort Brady, 
and that had subsequently become the Camp 
Brady Wireless Club. But Captain Hardy was 
no longer leader of the club. Pie had offered his 
services to his country, and was now Captain 
Hardy of the Medical Officers’ Reserve Corps. 
It was his standing and his friendship with the 
Chief of the Radio Service that had made it pos¬ 
sible to secure permission for the Camp Brady 
boys to act as radio men for the state troops the 
preceding summer, although the government had 
forbidden amateurs to send wireless messages. 
And Henry, believing that his idolized leader 
could accomplish anything, now cleared a space 
at his desk in a corner of the shop, and wrote him 
a long letter, setting forth all that was in his 
heart. 

The promptness with which the answer came 
should have warned Henry that the reply was not 
the one he hoped for. But his faith in his leader 
was so great that he never doubted for a moment 
that if Captain Hardy favored the proposal, he 


WHAT CAME OP HENRY’S IDEA 13 

could effect its accomplishment. With a shout 
of joy, Henry seized the letter from the hand of 
the postman and ran to his favorite haunt, the 
workshop, to read it. As he did so, the smile 
faded from his face and a look of utter despair 
succeeded it, for this was what he read: 

“ My dear Henry: 

“ It was a very great pleasure to receive 
your letter, with the little items of information 
about the members of the club, and your plan to 
be helpful in the present emergency. I know ex¬ 
actly how you feel. Every true American is 
filled with similar loathing for the treacherous 
enemies that infest our land, and with the same 
ardent desire to hunt them down and bring them 
to justice. You may be very sure that our secret 
service men are hard on the trail of many of 
them. Yet the very story of treachery that has 
so stirred your indignation shows that the secret 
service men cannot cope with them. But the 
fault is not with the secret service. It lies with 
Congress, which has persistently refused to 
appropriate sufficient money to make the service 
adequate. As far as it goes, it is the peer of any 
secret service. Of course help is needed, but I 
very much fear it is not the sort of assistance 
that the Camp Brady boys are prepared to give. 

“ You see, Henry, there are two possibilities. 
Either there is a leak in the navy department 


14 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

itself, as your story says, or else the sailing of the 
troops was observed at the port of embarkation 
and their destination guessed at. There is 
nothing you could do in the way of apprehending 
a spy in Washington, and I doubt if you could 
be of much assistance in detecting German agents 
in our ports. Of course I know how skilful the 
boys are with their wireless, especially you and 
Willie Brown, and I know what close observers 
Roy Mercer and Lew Heinsling are. And I 
realize, too, that in running down the dynamiters 
at the Elk City reservoir after both the Pennsyl¬ 
vania troops and the state police had failed, you 
proved that the wireless patrol was a mighty 
efficient organization. But that campaign was 
accomplished in the mountains and forests where 
your training in scouting and woodcraft has made 
you at home. Conditions in a great seaport 
would be so strange and confusing to all of you 
that I fear you would be more of a hindrance 
than a help. 

“ I am sorry about it, for I know how keenly 
you feel and how eager you are to help your 
country. The best way you can do that is to 
continue in school, learning all you can and 
making yourselves more and more efficient as 
wireless operators. In a very short time, I sus¬ 
pect, Uncle Sam will be in pressing need of good 
radio men. Then, although you are still young, 
your chance will come; for your ability is already 
known to the Chief of the Radio Service through 
your capture of the dynamiters last summer. 


WHAT CAME OF HENRY’S IDEA 15 

“As you know, our camp is just outside of 
Washington. I happen to be going into the city 
to-morrow. Of course, I shall take occasion to 
lay your suggestion before the Chief. But do 
not build any hopes on that statement. I have 
no idea anything will come of it. But it may 
help the Chief to bear you in mind later on. I 
am sorry to dash your hopes, but I cannot do 
otherwise than to tell you the truth. Of course 
if anything should come of it, I will let you know 
promptly. Remember me to all the other boys. 

“ Sincerely yours, 

“ James Hardy.” 


Henry’s face became longer and longer as he 
read. When he had finished the letter there was 
more than a suspicion of moisture in his eyes. 

“ Oh! ” he cried, “ if only I could be with Cap¬ 
tain Hardy when he sees the Chief of the Radio 
Service, I’d make the Chief understand that we 
can help. We could be just as useful to the 
radio men as the Baker Street Irregulars were to 
Sherlock Holmes. Oh! I just wish I could be 
with him. I wonder when he will see the Chief.” 

Henry picked up the envelope and examined 
the postmark. “ This was mailed yesterday 
morning,” he muttered, “ and Captain Hardy 


16 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


said he was going to Washington to-morrow. 
That’s to-day. Maybe he’s with him this after¬ 
noon. Maybe he went this morning. I’m sure 
he knows by this time what the result is. Oh! 
I wish I were with him. I’d just make that 
Radio Chief take us.” 

As he spoke a telegraph messenger entered 
the yard. He caught sight of Henry in the 
workshop door. “Hey!” he called. “Does 
Henry Harper live here? Got a message for 
him.” 

Henry was almost too much amazed to answer. 
He had never received a telegram in his life 
before. 

“ Hey! ” called the messenger again. “ Are 
you asleep ? ” 

“ No,” was the answer, “ and I’m Henry 
Harper.” 

“ Then why didn’t you say so? ” 

Henry ran forward and seized the yellow 
envelope. “ Where’s it from? ” he asked. 

“ Washington,” said the messenger. 

“Washington!” repeated Henry. “Wash¬ 
ington! Then we’re to go.” 


WHAT CAME OF HENRY’S IDEA 17 

“ If you’ll sign here,” said the messenger, “ I’ll 
go. I can’t stand here all day. Nothin’ to pay.” 

Henry signed the messenger’s book, then tore 
open the envelope and took out the following 
telegram: “Want you, Roy, Lew, and Willie 
to meet me Pennsylvania Station New York City 
Friday two p. m. for work suggested in your 
letter.” 


CHAPTER II 


HENRY OVERCOMES AN OBSTACLE 

C OULD the messenger boy have seen Henry 
after the latter had read the telegram, he 
would soon have changed his mind as to Henry’s 
sleepiness. For a very brief space—just long 
enough to reread the message once or twice— 
Henry stood like one dazed, as motionless as a 
statue, and as silent as a sign-post. Then he 
gave a loud whoop and began to dance around 
the little shop. For a boy who was ordinarily 
so sober as Henry, such conduct was scandal¬ 
ously riotous. He skipped about the tiny wire¬ 
less room, waving his hat in his hand, cheering 
for the Camp Brady Wireless Patrol, and mak¬ 
ing loud declarations as to what that organiza¬ 
tion would do to the enemies of the country. 

Ordinarily Henry would have restrained him¬ 
self. Not even the news that the Camp Brady 
Patrol had been selected to perform the wireless 
18 


HENRY OVERCOMES AN OBSTACLE 19 


service at the guard headquarters the preceding 
summer had excited Henry as did this message 
from his captain. But that was scarcely to be 
wondered at. The work for the commander of 
the Pennsylvania guards had promised nothing 
but the sending of uninteresting and wordy 
despatches, though to be sure it had turned out 
quite differently before it was ended. But the 
task now in view promised excitement from the 
start. It breathed adventure, romance. To 
hunt spies—to trace traitors—to turn the search¬ 
light on hidden crimes and dark deeds—to outwit 
clever men—to take a man’s part in a man’s 
world—to do deeds of daring and bravery—and 
above all to serve his country and save his fel¬ 
lows—these were the things that came into his 
mind as the probable results of the precious com¬ 
munication he held in his hand. 

Forgotten were the tedious hours of monotony 
that his sober senses would have told him must 
make up the greater part of any such labor as 
that he was now about to embark upon. For¬ 
gotten were the dull, deadly dull and uninterest¬ 
ing days that his experience should have told him 


20 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


lay before him. In his enthusiasm Henry saw 
only the bright spots. The mental vision he 
looked upon glowed with rosy light. And 
Henry gave himself up utterly to enjoyment 
of the prospect. 

So he danced and shouted and waved his hat, 
and cheered for the Camp Brady Patrol, until in 
his excitement he danced too close to the side of 
the tiny shop. His wildly waving hat came into 
contact with sundry tools and kettles and other 
metal implements hung up on nails to be out of 
the way. Down came saws and pails and a 
sprinkling can, and the hoe, and a dozen other 
articles in a noisy crash. It sounded as though 
a cyclone had suddenly descended upon the little 
shop, or a 42-centimeter shell had burst within. 
The exultant chant of the lone occupant of the 
building suddenly ceased. But its place was 
instantly taken by another voice as Henry’s 
mother suddenly appeared on the back porch of 
the house, looking anxiously toward the work¬ 
shop. 

“ Henry! Henry! ” came her anxious call. 

“ Yes, mother,” replied Henry, disentangling 


HENRY OVERCOMES AN OBSTACLE 21 


himself from the wreckage, and thrusting his 
head out of the shop door. “ What is it? ” 

“ Whatever are you doing? ” demanded Mrs. 
Harper. “ I thought the shop had tumbled in.” 

“ It’s only some things I knocked down,” 
laughed Henry. Then his enthusiasm bubbled 
over again. “ Just think, mother,” he cried. 
“ We’re going! We’re going! Captain Hardy 
has sent for us! ” 

Mrs. Harper looked at her son anxiously. 
His words meant absolutely nothing to her, for 
Henry had not told any one of his letter to his 
captain. Suddenly she feared that perhaps 
something had fallen on Henry’s head and 
momentarily unbalanced him. 

“Going?” she said. “Where? What are 
you talking about? ” 

“ We’re going to New York City to help catch 
German spies,” cried Henry, beginning to dance 
about again in his excitement. “ Isn’t it bully! 
And we’ll catch ’em, too, just as we did the 
dynamiters.” 

“ I guess you’re going crazy,” said his mother. 
Then as Henry continued his demonstration, his 


22 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


mother said sharply, “ You stop right there, 
Henry Harper, and tell me what all this nonsense 
means about German spies and New York and 
Captain Hardy. You know very well that Cap¬ 
tain Hardy is in Washington with the army.” 

Henry at once calmed down and took a grip on 
himself. “Yes, mother,” he said. “ Captain 
Hardy was in Washington, but he is going to 
New York-” 

“ How do you know? ” interrupted Mrs. 
Harper impatiently. 

“ He just telegraphed me-” 

“Telegraphed you!” said the incredulous 
Mrs. Harper. “ What would Captain Hardy 
be telegraphing to a youngster like you for, I’d 
like to know.” 

“ In answer to my letter-” began Henry, 

but again his mother cut him short. 

“ Your letter? ” she said. “ What letter? I 
didn’t know that you had written him a let¬ 
ter.” 

“ You see, mother,” said Henry patiently, 
“ when I read in the newspapers the other day 
that the Germans had found out about the sailing 





HENRY OVERCOMES AN OBSTACLE 23 


of Pershing’s men, and had sent submarines to 
lay in wait for them out in the ocean, the idea 
came to me that perhaps the wireless patrol could 
help to discover-” 

“ Henry Harper, I hope you never had the 
impudence to suggest that you youngsters 
could-” 

“ I did, mother. But I don’t think it was im¬ 
pudence. I wrote to Dr. Hardy and asked if 
the wireless patrol couldn’t help catch the spies 
who are sending news to Germany.” 

“ Well of all things! ” ejaculated Mrs. Harper. 
“ What will you infants do next? Offer to re¬ 
lieve the President of his job? ” 

“ Well, we did catch the dynamiters at the 
Elk City reservoir,” protested Henry defen¬ 
sively. “ And we did it after the state police and 
the national guards had failed. I don’t see why 
we can’t help catch German spies in New York 
just as well as in Pennsylvania.” 

“Humph!” said Mrs. Harper. “It’s a lot 
of help you youngsters would be in catching real 
spies. You just happened to stumble on these 
dynamiters and now you think you can do any- 




24 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


thing. But that’s the way with boys. They’re 
all alike.” 

“ But, mother,” protested Henry, “ boys can 
be useful in lots of ways. And just because 
they are boys nobody thinks of suspecting 
them.” 

“ There’s one place where a certain boy I know 
could be of a lot of use and never be suspected,” 
agreed Mrs. Harper. “ And that’s at that wood- 
pile back of the shed.” 

“ Please don’t interrupt me, mother,” said 
Henry. “You asked me to tell you about our 
trip to New York.” 

“ About your dream of a trip to New York,” 
corrected Mrs. Harper. “ You don’t for one 
minute think you are really going to New York, 
do you? ” 

“ Indeed we are,” replied Henry. “ And this 
is how it came about. When I read of the leak 
in the navy’s secrets and the attempts of the 
Germans to torpedo our transports, I wrote to 
Captain Hardy about it. I told him we could be 
just as useful catching German spies in New 
York as we were in Pennsylvania. He answered 


HENRY OVERCOMES AN OBSTACLE 25 

and said he didn’t think we could be of any use, 
but-” 

“ Showed his sense,” interrupted Mrs. Harper. 

“ But he said,” continued Henry, paying no 
attention to the interruption, “ that he would 
mention the matter to the Chief of the Radio 
Service and let me know if anything came of it. 
And something has come of it, mother. Just 
think! We’re to go. Here’s the telegram 
itself.” 

Mrs. Harper took the yellow paper that 
Henry held out to her and read it slowly and 
carefully. “Well, I never!” she said at last. 
“ I never did! But I don’t know whether to let 
you go or not. Why, you’d be lost inside of ten 
minutes in New York, and instead of being a 
help to the police, you’d keep them busy hunting 
for you. I don’t know about this. Wait till 
your father gets home and we’ll talk it over.” 

“ But, mother,” protested Henry, “ I can’t 
wait. And we’ve got to go. The Chief of the 
Radio Service has asked for our help. That 
means the government wants us. If it wants us, 
it must need us. And we’ve just got to go.” 



26 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

“ Humph! ” said Mrs. Harper. 

“ And besides,” added Henry, reading the 
signs in his mother’s face, “ Dr. Hardy is to be 
in New York with us, so we can’t get into 
trouble.” 

“ Well, that alters the case,” said Mrs. Harper. 
“ With Dr. Hardy to look after you, I reckon 
you can't go very far astray.” 

“ Then we can go, mother? ” 

“ I suppose so. I know your father thinks 
every one of us should do everything he possibly 
can to help win this war. But it gets me to 
know what you youngsters can do that will be 
of any use. Still, I guess the government 
wouldn’t have sent for you if it didn’t want you, 
and I won’t stand in the road of the government.” 

“ Hurrah! ” shouted Henry. “ Then I’m off 
to tell the others.” And he darted out of the 
yard and was away like an arrow. 


CHAPTER III 


THE WIRELESS PATROL PREPARES FOR ACTION 

T top speed Henry tore down the street. 



Half a block from his home he passed a 
schoolmate. 

“Hey! What’s your hurry?” the latter 
called out, as Henry dashed past him. 

“ Wireless patrol ordered out! ” Henry shouted 
over his shoulder, as he darted on down the street. 

“ Wait a minute! ” called the other lad. 

“ Can’t,” cried Henry. “ Got to get the 
patrol together to go on a spy hunt.” 

At the words “ spy hunt ” the other boy leaped 
forward and ran after Henry at top speed. 
“What’s up?” he asked enviously, as he over¬ 
took Henry and raced along beside him. For 
the lad did not belong to the wireless patrol. 

“ Ordered to New York by the government,” 
panted Henry, “ to hunt for German spies.” 

The announcement had all the effect Henry 
intended it to have. For a full half minute his 


27 


28 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


companion said never a word, but ran mutely be¬ 
side him, his eyes fastened incredulously on 
Henry. Then, “ Gee whiz! ” he said. “ You’re 
not really goin’ to New York! ” 

“ Sure thing,” panted Henry. “ Just got a 
telegram from Washington.” 

That was too much for Henry’s companion. 
“ Gee whiz! ” he said again. “ I wish I belonged 
to the wireless patrol.” 

Henry looked at him sympathetically, half 
sorry that he had said what he had. “ Maybe 
you will some day,” he replied. “ Good-bye.” 

They had reached the home of wee Willie 
Brown. Henry stopped abruptly and turned in 
at the open gate. He mounted the steps and 
rang the bell. Mrs. Brown opened the door. 

“ Is Willie—at home—Mrs. Brown?” he 
asked, all out of breath. 

“ Yes, Henry,” replied Mrs. Brown. “ You’ll 
find him up in his room.” 

“ Is he busy? ” 

“ Oh! He’s tinkering with his wireless, as 
usual,” said Mrs. Brown. “ But he’s always 
glad to see you, Henry.” 


THE PATEOL PEEPAEES FOE ACTION 29 

“ He will be this time, I’m sure,” said Henry. 
“ The wireless patrol is ordered out on a spy 
hunt.” 

“What! Not again?” queried Mrs. Brown, 
in astonishment. “ Where are you going this 
time? ” 

“ To New York,” rejoined Henry, and his 
voice plainly showed his exultation. 

“ Tell me more about it.” Mrs. Brown was 
at once all seriousness. 

Henry turned away from the stair door and 
explained the situation to Mrs. Brown, who was 
very sober. But when Henry said that Dr. 
Hardy had asked the boys to come and that he 
would himself be with them in New York, the 
serious look vanished from Mrs. Brown’s face. 
“ That’s all right, then,” she said. “ If Dr. 
Hardy wants you and is to be there to look after 
you, it is all right. I am glad Willie has the 
opportunity to go. He has never been in a 
really big city.” 

Henry went on up to Willie’s room and broke 
the news to him. And the sounds that came 
down to Mrs. Brown made her laugh heartily. 


30 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


But it was a laugh of sympathy. She remem¬ 
bered that she had once been young herself. 
Presently the racket up-stairs subsided. Then 
came the clatter of noisy and eager feet on the 
stairs. And a, moment later Henry and Willie 
skipped out of the door, tore through the gate, 
and went racing up the street toward Roy 
Mercer’s house. 

But Roy was not at home. He was, as 
Henry had suspected he would be, at work in the 
garage where he had been employed during the 
school vacation. But Henry thought it would 
be well to secure permission from Mrs. Mercer 
for Roy to take the trip to New York, for she 
was inclined to be rather strict with Roy. 

“ Captain Hardy has just sent me a request 
for four of the boys of the wireless patrol to come 
to New York,” said Henry, diplomatically, “ and 
Roy is one of the four he wants. We came to 
see if he may go.” 

Mrs. Mercer looked at Henry keenly. 
“ What are you going to do in New York,” she 
demanded, “and who’s to pay the bills?” 

“ I don’t know exactly what we’re to do,” said 


THE PATROL PREPARES FOR ACTION 31 

Henry, “ but we’re to help the wireless service. 
I think they want us to listen in and pick up low- 
length messages that the high-powered govern¬ 
ment stations don’t get. The government will 
pay our expenses.” 

“ Humph! ” said Mrs. Mercer. Then she was 
silent a moment in thought. “ When does Dr. 
Hardy want you to go? ” 

“ He wants us to meet him in New York at 
two o’clock Friday afternoon. That means we 
should have to leave here on the early morning 
train Friday.” 

“ I don’t know about this,” said Mrs. Mercer. 
“ All play and no work is just as bad for a boy 
as no play and all work. And Roy has done 
nothing but play all summer. He has been at 
that camp of yours ever since school closed. 
And besides, he is earning three dollars a week 
working at the garage.” 

Henry had feared that Mrs. Mercer would 
object to Roy’s going. Roy’s father had been 
sick and unable to work for some weeks, and 
Henry knew that the three dollars Roy earned 
each week were badly needed in the Mercer home. 


32 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

“ I think that the government will pay Roy 
more than he earns now,” explained Henry. 
“ And I hope that you will let him go because 
Captain Hardy wants only certain boys and Roy 
is one of them. He is very necessary to the suc¬ 
cess of our work.” 

“ I’ll see what Roy’s father says,” was the 
reply, and Mrs. Mercer vanished within the 
house. 

Meantime Henry and Willie stood on the 
porch hardly daring to speak to one another, so 
fearful were they that Roy might not be allowed 
to go. When Mrs. Mercer suddenly appeared 
again and announced briefly that Roy could go, 
they thanked her, and as soon as they could get 
around a corner, they gave vent to their feelings 
in a loud whoop. 

Lew Heinsling was picked up a few minutes 
later, with no objection on the part of his 
parents, and the three boys raced to the garage, 
where they imparted the news to Roy. 

School, which normally should already have 
been in session, had been kept from opening by 
an epidemic of measles; and no one knew when 


THE PATROL PREPARES FOR ACTION 33 

it would convene. But there was no apparent 
chance of an early opening, for the epidemic was 
then at its worst. There was no obstacle now in 
the way of the four boys. Roy got his employer’s 
permission to leave the garage for an hour, and 
the four boys hurried to the wireless patrol head¬ 
quarters in Henry’s shop, to discuss the ad¬ 
venture that lay before them. 

That night the entire patrol assembled in the 
little workshop and those who were not to go 
enviously discussed the coming adventure with 
the four who had been summoned to duty. For 
no one in the patrol doubted that the expedition 
would end in adventure and excitement, to say 
nothing of the delights of a trip to the nation’s 
metropolis. Their common experience in running 
down the dynamiters at the Elk City reservoir 
gave these boys the certainty that both adventure 
and danger lay ahead of their four lucky fellows. 
But could they have known how truly thrilling 
and adventurous were the days ahead of their 
companions; could they have foreseen all the 
strange and exciting situations that would con¬ 
front their fellows; could they have guessed the 


34 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


part their comrades of the wireless patrol were 
about to play in wiping out this hidden menace 
to our troops on the ocean, they would have been 
envious indeed. 

But they could not know these things. And 
they recognized the fact that Captain Hardy 
had asked for these four because of their superior 
attainments, because they were best fitted to do 
the work in hand. So the stay-at-homes loyally 
crushed down their feeling of envy and united in 
a hearty send-off for their fellows. Every mem¬ 
ber of the patrol was at the railroad station 
Friday morning to bid good-bye to their four 
comrades who were to play no inconspicuous part 
in the stirring days to come, and who were to 
make known to the country at large the name of 
the Camp Brady Wireless Patrol. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 



S the conductor shouted “ All aboard! ” the 


x little group of boys on the station platform 
suddenly parted, and the four who had stood in 
the centre of the ring, vigorously shaking hands, 
now moved hastily toward the train and 
scrambled up the steps. The conductor waved 
his signal to the engine-driver and swung aboard. 
The locomotive bell began to ring, there was a 
hissing of steam, and a puffing of the great loco¬ 
motive, and the train slid gently forward. On 
the car platform stood the four departing mem¬ 
bers of the wireless patrol, waving fond farewells 
to their less fortunate members. Then they 
turned and entered the coach, with the cheers of 
their comrades ringing in their ears, their hearts 
beating with high determination to give all that 
they had of strength and skill and courage and 
patience to the grim task that lay ahead of them. 


35 


36 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


In no time Central City was lost from sight. 
The familiar fields and woods vanished. The 
country grew strange. Soon they were passing 
through a region entirely unknown to them. 
But so busy was each boy with his thoughts that 
he hardly noticed what at other times would have 
held his closest attention; for the pictures in each 
mind were just as unfamiliar as the landscape 
through which they were speeding. 

“ What was to be the nature of their work? ” 
each boy was asking himself. “ Would they sit 
and listen in, as they had done at Camp Brady, or 
would they be set to roving about, trying to pick 
out suspicious characters, or detect suspicious 
acts? And what would New York be like? 
What was there about this great, roaring city of 
men that was so attractive, that drew such multi¬ 
tudes to it, that grew with such uncanny swift¬ 
ness? What was New York like, anyway?” 

And almost before they knew it, the train 
rolled into a tunnel, dived under a great river, 
and emerged again in a huge yard far below the 
level of the streets, that was filled with many 
tracks and closed in with enormous walls of 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 


37 


cement. Then the train ran into a great shed 
and came to rest. The boys left the coach, 
mounted a long flight of iron steps and found 
themselves in the city of their dreams—New 
York. 

And there, at the gateway, was their beloved 
captain. They swarmed about him and grasped 
his hand. Then Captain Hardy led them to a 
corner of the waiting-room that offered a little 
privacy, and there they sat down in a group, 
close to one another, to talk over the business 
that had brought them again together. 

“ As I wrote you in my letter, Henry,” said 
Captain Hardy, “ I was not at all hopeful that 
your plan would meet with official encourage¬ 
ment. But I had promised you that I would 
mention it to the Chief of the Radio Service and 
I did so. It didn’t take him a minute to decide 
on it. To my surprise he said he wanted you. 
‘ I haven’t a bit of doubt,’ said he , 4 that the coun¬ 
try’s full of secret German wireless outfits. 
They are probably of small sending power and 
operate in unusual wave lengths. It is almost 
impossible for our regular service to detect them. 


38 


THE SECEET WIRELESS 


In fact I don’t know how we are ever going to 
locate them unless we organize the amateurs all 
over the country so that they can listen in and 
catch practically everything that goes through 
the air. We are not able to do that yet, but I 
shall be very glad to have the help of your boys. 
I’ve been mighty interested in the way they 
handled that affair at Elk City. They are ex¬ 
perienced and have good sense. They should be 
very useful to Uncle Sam.’ ” Dr. Hardy paused 
and smiled. “ You see,” he went on, “ the Chief 
has kept pretty close watch of you boys. He 
knows all about the affair at Elk City.” And 
Captain Hardy smiled affectionately at his 
charges. 

“ What are the Radio Chief’s instructions? ” 
asked Roy. “ What are we to do? ” 

“ The Radio Service,” replied Captain Hardy, 
“ has no agencies for making arrests and detect¬ 
ing crime. So we shall work under the direction 
of the secret service and in cooperation with the 
police. And our first duty is to make ourselves 
known to both.” 

“ If the Chief of the Radio Service wanted the 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 


39 


wireless patrol,” said Roy, “ why did you tele¬ 
graph for just the four of us? And why are 
we in New York instead of Washington? ” 

“ You couldn’t be of any use in Washington,” 
said Captain Hardy, “ but you may be of a great 
deal of service here. You see New York is a 
difficult place to guard. This is our principal 
port. It is so vast that it is next to impossible to 
watch all of it, and there are hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of Germans or people of German, descent 
living here. The Radio Chief needs sharp eyes 
and ears as well as trained fingers just now, and 
he knows that you boys combine these qualifica¬ 
tions. He suggested that I send for four of you 
and see what you could accomplish. I chose you 
four because you have shown the greatest ability 
along the lines necessary.” 

A flush of pleasure glowed in each of the faces 
before him. For a moment Willie Brown forgot 
where he was, forgot the crowd and the great 
station and the strange sights and sounds about 
him, forgot even why he was in New York, while 
his mind went back to that first summer at Camp 
Brady, when he had been the most backward, 


40 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


self-distrustful, helpless lad in camp. Now he 
was chosen to serve his government, to do work 
of the greatest importance for his country; and 
he had been selected because of his ability. No 
wonder Willie blessed the day he first saw Camp 
Brady. No wonder his eyes were wet with a 
grateful mist as he looked affectionately at his 
captain, who had made him what he was. 

But Willie had little time for revery. Roy 
was speaking again, asking another of those sharp 
questions that showed very well why he should 
have been chosen as a spy hunter, or for any¬ 
thing else that required keenness of mind. 

“ What about yourself? ” Roy was saying. 
“ Do you have to go back to your medical duties? 
We can work ever so much better with you to 
lead us than we could with a stranger.” 

Roy alone had grasped the possibility that 
Captain Hardy might not be able to remain with 
them. Now every eye was fixed anxiously on 
Captain Hardy’s face. 

“ No,” he said, “ I do not have to return to 
Washington. It is of the utmost importance to 
catch these spies and the government could well 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 


41 


afford to give up one ordinary doctor in order to 
get four skilled spy hunters/’ He paused and 
smiled, then added: “ So I have been detailed to 
special duty in New York.” 

The boys could hardly repress a shout of joy. 

“ And my instructions,” continued Captain 
Hardy, “ were to get into touch with the police 
and the secret service immediately. As I have 
told you, we must get acquainted with both. 
But before we do, I suggest that we take a look 
at the town where we are to work in the days to 
come. Let’s be moving.” 

They rose and passed through the station. 
Its great vaulted ceiling, half as high as a church 
steeple, its huge flights of steps, its enormous 
corridors, its wonderful stonework, dwarfing into 
insignificance anything they had ever seen before, 
fairly awed the boys from Central City. It was 
Roy’s keen eye that caught sight of the great 
maps of the world high up on the walls. The 
crowds of people coming and going hardly 
seemed like crowds, so vast was the structure. 
With reluctant feet the four boys pushed on. 
But when they had mounted the steps to the 


42 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


arcade and caught sight of the illuminated 
transparencies showing scenes along the railway’s 
path, they came to a dead stop. For Willie 
Brown, with his almost uncanny eye for land¬ 
scapes, at once declared that a certain picture 
represented a mountain scene not twenty-five 
miles from Central City; and when the others 
aj)pealed to Captain Hardy, the latter confirmed 
Willie’s statement. 

When the four lads reached the sidewalk they 
were almost distracted. Thousands of people 
were hurrying along, passing in endless throngs 
up and down the street. Never had the boys 
from Central City seen people in such a rush. 

“ What’s the hurry? ” demanded Roy. “ Why 
does everybody walk so fast? What’s up?” 

“ Nothing,” replied Captain Hardy, with a 
smile. “ That’s just the New York gait. Every¬ 
body walks fast here, and does everything else 
fast; and if you boys want to make a reputation 
in New York you’ll have to hustle some. But I 
don’t want you to make that kind of a reputa¬ 
tion,” he continued, hastily yanking Willie 
Brown from in front of a passing motor- 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 


43 


car. “ You will have to keep your eyes open 
here.” 

And indeed they had to. Motor-cars were 
rushing about as numerous as flies in August. 
Trolley-cars followed one another up and down 
Seventh Avenue in endless processions. Wagons 
and trucks stretched along the highway in slow- 
moving lines as far as the eye could see. Bells 
were ringing, whistles tooting, horns blowing, 
motor-cars honking, newsies shouting. The 
grinding of car-wheels, the rattle of carts, the 
clatter of hoofs on the asphalt, the shuffling of 
feet on the sidewalk, and a thousand other noises 
combined to make an indescribable and confusing 
roar. The noise and bustle were bewildering. 

“ I guess mother was right,” thought Henry. 
“ It would be mighty easy to get lost here. The 
wireless patrol will have to look sharp or the 
police will be called upon to find it.” 

And indeed there were so many distracting 
things that the four spy hunters found it difficult 
not to get lost. At every step something new 
and unfamiliar claimed their attention and caused 
them to pause and look about. 


44 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Captain Hardy let his charges go at their own 
gait. He paused when they wanted to look at 
something, took sharp care of them at crossings, 
and told them how to cross the streets so as to 
avoid accidents. And ever he kept his eye on 
them to see that none of the four became 
separated from the group. It pleased him to 
note how quickly they learned to avoid the traffic 
and dodge difficulties. Their training in ob¬ 
servation had not been in vain. 

To Herald Square the captain led his party. 
There, in a little eddy of sidewalk traffic, he drew 
them together. 

“ The streets that run lengthwise of the island,” 
he said, “ are called avenues, and the one before 
you is Sixth Avenue. The station we just left 
faces on Seventh Avenue. The cross streets are 
numbered, and the one we are on is Thirty-fourth 
Street. Broadway comes up the island on a long 
diagonal. Right here where Broadway, Thirty- 
fourth Street, and Sixth Avenue intersect, is one 
of the busiest corners in the city. Overhead are 
two elevated railway tracks. On the ground are 
six street-car tracks, crossing one another. Un- 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 


45 


der the surface are two subway tracks. So you 
have three layers of people passing and repassing 
above or below one another. I want you to 
remember what I have said as to the arrange¬ 
ment of the thoroughfares—avenues run north 
and south, streets east and west. If you get that 
thought in your mind, you won’t go very far out 
of your way. 

“ And there is one thing more to remember. 
In some cities, such as Philadelphia, the street 
numbers run 100 to each block. Here the houses 
are numbered consecutively, and you can’t tell 
by a number where a house is. But if you should 
need to know, go to the nearest drug store. 
Every New York drug store has a city directory. 
And in the back of the directory you will find a 
table that will show you approximately where to 
find the street number you want. Don’t forget. 
If you are to do effective work, you must become 
so familiar with New York that you can find 
your way around as readily as you can in Central 
City. Sometimes it may be necessary for you to 
go from place to place in the shortest possible 
time and you must know not only how to get 


46 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


there, but also how to take advantage of short 
cuts. We’ll get some maps after a time and 
study them.” 

His young companions plied their leader with 
a thousand questions. They wanted to know the 
names of all the big buildings in sight. They 
had all heard of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and 
they gazed up Thirty-fourth Street at this well- 
known hostelry with much curiosity. They had 
heard of the Times Building and were eager to 
see it. 

“We can’t spend much time sightseeing just 
now,” said Captain Hardy. “We must get into 
touch with the police and the secret service people 
and get our instructions. Then we will take a 
day or two, if possible, and see something of the 
town. It is most important for you to become 
well acquainted with it at once. But I guess we 
can take time to slip up to Times Square. It’s 
only eight blocks up Broadway. Now I want 
you boys to see everything you can as we go 
along, and to try to remember all that you see. 
Wherever you go you must remember that you 
are in New York to detect German spies and 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 


47 


presumably to run down German wireless out¬ 
fits. We don’t know where they are. We may 
be looking at one this very instant. So keep 
your eyes open. If you see anything that 
resembles a wireless outfit, or that might be used 
for sending messages, take careful note of it. 
And keep your ears open for suspicious con¬ 
versations. Because you are boys, people will be 
less careful in their talk when you are present 
than they would be with older people about. 
The more youthful and unsophisticated you can 
make yourselves appear, the better it will be for 
your purpose.” 

Slowly the little party made its way up Broad¬ 
way. By degrees the lads became accustomed to 
the roar of the traffic and the rush of pedestrians. 
At Times Square they paused for a look at the 
great newspaper building that gives the place its 
name, and at the great hotels rising on every side. 
Then they passed down a long flight of steps and 
found themselves in a low, vaulted, underground 
subway station. 

“ Makes you think of the dugouts on the firing- 
line in France,” suggested the quick-witted Roy. 


48 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

An instant later a train thundered up to the 
platform and the boys boarded it. A short ride 
and a short walk took them to Police Head¬ 
quarters. 

Captain Hardy sent his card to the Police 
Commissioner, with the request for a brief inter¬ 
view. A few moments later he had presented 
his credentials and introduced his companions, 
and four delighted boys found themselves blush- 
ingly shaking hands with New York’s famous 
chief of police, Arthur Woods. Briefly Captain 
Hardy stated the purpose of his visit and related 
the story of the capture of the Elk City dyna¬ 
miters. 

“ I recall the incident distinctly,” said the Com¬ 
missioner. “ The newspapers were full of it. 
And I recall that when I read the story I wished 
I had as accomplished and clever a squad of boys 
to help me with some of my hard problems.” 

The four boys flushed with happiness. But 
they were too much embarrassed to make any 
reply. 

“ Captain Hardy,” said the Commissioner, 
“ what is your plan of action? ” 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 49 

“ We have none as yet. We are to work un¬ 
der the direction of the secret service. But we 
have not seen Chief Flynn yet. The boys just 
arrived.” 

“ Let me make one suggestion to you,” said 
the Commissioner, turning again to the boys. 
“ Before you attempt to do any detective work 
make yourselves familiar with the city. Get 
some maps and study them until you know every 
street and alley. Take your maps and go over 
the city on foot. Put several days in at it. 
Become acquainted with the water-front, the 
piers, the surface cars, the subways, the ferries. 
Learn the city so that you can get around rapidly. 
Make the acquaintance of as many policemen, 
wireless operators, secret service men, and other 
persons as you can. Don’t forget that a kind 
deed or a thoughtful act will help you to make 
friendships quicker than anything else; and make 
all the friends you can. In police work you 
never know who will be of assistance to you. 
And above all things don’t talk. Don’t tell a 
living soul about your purpose or your plans. 
Let Captain Hardy do that if it is necessary. 


50 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Secrecy is absolutely essential to the success of 
your work. Unless you can get along without 
betraying yourselves you may as well go right 
back home. Remember the spies you are after 
are also after you. If they learn what you are, 
they might even take your lives.” 

“ Commissioner Woods,” said Captain Hardy, 
after a pause, “ I have been wondering whether 
or not these boys should have some kind of passes 
that will enable them to get through the police 
lines. There may come times when it is of the 
highest importance that nothing shall interfere 
with them. What do you think about it? ” 

The Commissioner considered for a mo¬ 
ment. “ If I were sure they could be trusted 
with-” 

“ They can,” interrupted Captain Hardy. 
“ Absolutely.” 

“ Very well then.” 

The Commissioner pressed a button on his 
desk. A clerk entered the room. 

“ Make out special police cards for Captain 
Hardy and these four lads,” he said, naming the 
boys. 



THE SCENE OF ACTION 


51 


Again he turned to the young spy hunters. 
“ The cards you are about to get,” he said, “ will 
pass you by any policeman or put you through 
any police line. Do not let any one know you 
have them and never use them unless you abso¬ 
lutely must. It is best that not even the police 
should know who you are. Be very careful not 
to lose your cards.” 

“We will make some little cloth bags,” said 
Henry, “ and carry the cards in them inside of 
our underclothes.” 

“ I see that you are resourceful,” smiled the 
Commissioner. 

The clerk returned with the cards and handed 
them to Captain Hardy. 

“ Before you go,” said the Commissioner, 
“ perhaps you would like to see our wireless de¬ 
partment and get acquainted with Sergeant 
Pearce who is in charge of it.” 

He summoned a patrolman to guide them to 
the wireless rooms and wished the boys success. 

A few moments later Sergeant Pearce was 
showing them the apparatus. Two operators 
sat at a wonderful Marconi outfit with receivers 


52 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


clamped to their ears. In another room various 
instruments were installed here and there, the 
walls were covered with diagrams of wireless 
instruments and outfits, and lines of men were 
sitting at long tables with receivers at their ears. 
It was the police wireless school. High above 
the roof the aerial hung, suspended between the 
main dome and a smaller dome at one end of the 
building. 

“We are going to equip every station-house 
with wireless,” said Sergeant Pearce, “ and the 
men you saw at work in the school are being 
trained for operators. We have put wireless 
outfits on some of the patrol-wagons and on the 
police boat Patrol, so you see we can get into 
touch instantly with any precinct or with the 
Patrol no matter in what part of the harbor she 
may be. And when you have as big a harbor as 
we have, with several hundred miles of water¬ 
front, that means something.” 

From Police Headquarters the little party 
went directly to the Post Office Building, near 
the Brooklyn Bridge, to see Chief Flynn. He 
was a large, heavy man, with black hair and eyes 


THE SCENE OF ACTION 


53 


and a short mustache. He shook hands with 
each of the party, and gave each a searching look. 
He spoke quietly but right to the point. 

“ I had word from Washington about you,” 
he said. “ Do you know anything about the 
city? ” 

The boys admitted their ignorance. 

“ Then your first job is to get acquainted with 
New York. Get some maps and guide-books. 
While you are getting your bearings you can 
establish a wireless watch. I have a number of 
outfits in different parts of the city. For the 
next week or two, while you are getting ac¬ 
quainted with the city, I want you to maintain a 
twenty-four-hour watch at a place I shall send 
you to. Divide the time among you so that some 
one is listening in all the time. Here are the call 
signals of all the legitimate plants you will hear, 
either on land or water. Pay particular atten¬ 
tion to call signals. If you catch one not in this 
list, be sure to get every word sent and let me hear 
from you at once. We have other operators 
listening in for messages of the usual commercial 
wave lengths and for very long wave lengths, so 


54 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


you need watch only for messages of less than 
three hundred meters.” 

He wrote an address on a slip of paper and 
gave it to Captain Hardy. “ Go there,” he 
directed. “ A wireless outfit has been installed 
and accommodations await you.” 

He took the slip of paper from Captain Hardy 
and wrote some figures on it. “ That,” said he, 
“ is my private telephone number. But do not 
bother me unless you get hold of something 
important.” 

In another moment the wireless party found 
itself in the rush and roar of lower Broadway. 


CHAPTER V 


THE MESSAGE IN CIPHER 

HE house to which Chief Flynn had directed 



A the wireless patrol proved to be a private 
residence on a side street that ran between Cen¬ 
tral Park and the Hudson River. It was a tall 
house, standing two stories higher than any other 
structure in the block. Like most of its neigh¬ 
bors it had evidently seen better days. In places 
the brownstone front was cracked and great chips 
had flaked off. The broken stones in the long 
flight of steps that led up to the first floor were 
patched with colored cement that had faded so 
the patches stood out baldly. The brass hand¬ 
rail above the stone balustrade was battered and 
dirty. Altogether it was not a very attractive 
looking place. 

The old lady who opened the door eyed them 
sharply. 

“ A gentleman named Flynn recommended me 


55 


56 


THE SEOKET WIKELESS 


to your place,” said Captain Hardy. “ We shall 
need accommodations for quite a while.” 

“ You must be the gentleman from Washing¬ 
ton that he ’phoned me about. You are Captain 
Hardy? ” 

“ I am.” 

“ Come in,” said the landlady cordially. “ Any 
friends of Mr. Flynn’s are welcome. Your 
rooms are ready for you. Mr. Flynn said you 
wanted to be together, so I have given you the 
entire top floor.” 

She led the way up one narrow stairway after 
another until the party reached the top floor. 
There she threw open the door to the front room 
and withdrew. 

An exclamation of pleasure burst from the lips 
of the four boys. The shabby exterior of the 
house and the dim and dingy hallways through 
which they had come gave no hint of the cozy 
comfort that awaited them. The room they now 
entered was of generous size, with soft gray wall¬ 
paper and white woodwork. Along one side ran 
low, well-filled book-shelves. In the middle of 
the opposite wall, with fire-making materials 


THE MESSAGE IN CIPHER 


57 


already piled in it, was a small open grate, sur¬ 
mounted by an attractive mantel of white wood¬ 
work. There were a writing-table, a comfortable 
couch, and easy chairs. And what was most 
unusual for a city house, the room possessed 
windows on three sides—two overlooking the 
street and one giving a view over the housetops 
on either side. A door at the rear opened into a 
second room that was equipped as a writing room, 
with a broad table and several straight-backed 
chairs. Here, too, was an open grate set in a 
white mantel. In the room behind this were a 
number of cots. Back of all was the bath room. 
A snugger and more comfortable place it would 
have been hard to find. But nowhere was there 
anything that suggested a wireless outfit. 

The boys looked at one another questioningly. 
“ He said there was an outfit here,” said Lew, 
“ so there must be. But I don’t see where it 
can be.” 

“ It would be somewhere by itself,” said Roy, 
“ so that the operator wouldn’t be disturbed. It 
must be on another floor.” 

“ But if we are to keep a twenty-four-hour 


58 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


watch,” argued Henry, “ it ought to be right in 
our apartment.” 

“ Let’s look at the aerial, anyway,” suggested 
Lew. 

A door at the end of the hallway quite evi¬ 
dently led to the roof. They had noticed it as 
they followed their landlady up the stairs. 
Willie led the way through it and the boys found 
themselves on the roof, which, like the roofs of 
most city houses, was flat. Like its neighbors, 
also, this roof was encumbered with a number of 
long, wire clothes-lines, but the boys found noth¬ 
ing that suggested an aerial to them. Puzzled, 
they returned to their apartment. 

Presently there was a rap at the door. Cap¬ 
tain Hardy opened it and a man dressed as a 
waiter, whom they had seen in the hallway as 
they entered, stepped into the room. 

“ I came to show you your outfit,” he said. 

Stepping into the writing room, he grasped the 
corners of the mantel and gave a sharp pull. 
The entire upper half of the mantel swung out¬ 
ward and came to rest on the writing-table, re¬ 
vealing a compact but wonderfully well-equipped 


THE MESSAGE IN CIPHER 59 

wireless outfit, including even a wireless detector 
for telling the direction a wireless message came 
from. The boys stared in astonishment while 
the waiter grinned. 

“ What kind of a boarding-house is this, any¬ 
way? ” asked Lew. 

“ This ain’t no boardin’-house,” replied the 
man. “ This is a sort of headquarters for secret 
service men from out of town.” 

“ Where’s your aerial? ” demanded Willie. 

“ If you go on the roof you’ll see it—that is 
you will if your eyes are sharp enough.” 

“ I’ll bet it’s those wire clothes-lines,” said 
Willie. 

“ Nothin’ wrong with your eyes,” said the 
waiter with a smile. “ But I guess there wouldn’t 
be, if the Chief sent you here.” 

Naturally each of the boys was eager to test 
the outfit before them. They crowded round 
it, sliding the coil, shifting the condenser, ex¬ 
amining this and that, and voicing their approval 
and pleasure in the different instruments. 

“ We may as well begin our watch at once,” 
said Captain Hardy. “ Each of you will have to 


60 


THE SECEET WIBELESS 


listen in six hours a day. If we divide the 
watches into two tricks of three hours each, it 
will be easier for you.” 

The matter was arranged accordingly, and the 
first trick given to the most experienced operator, 
Henry. After the others had seen him take his 
seat and adjust his receivers to his head, they 
withdrew from the wireless room. 

But Henry was far from being in solitude. 
Sitting apparently alone, he was listening to a 
multitude of voices; for before beginning his 
vigil he wanted to test out his instruments and 
see how well they worked and how sharply they 
would register sounds. So he sat at his table, 
tuning now to this wave length and now to that, 
now catching a land message and now one from 
the sea. Distinctly he caught the signal NAA 
from the great navy wireless plant at Arlington. 
He recognized it before the operator had finished 
sending his call signal. Night after night with 
his home-made outfit at Central City, Henry had 
heard this station send forth the time signals at 
ten o’clock; and during his brief period as radio 
man for Uncle Sam he had often talked with 


THE MESSAGE IN CIPHER 


61 


Arlington, both sending and receiving messages 
from the great station. But though he recog¬ 
nized the voice, he did not know the language he 
heard; for Arlington was flinging abroad a 
message in the secret code of the navy. Press 
messages and commercial communications were 
buzzing through the air like swarms of bees. 
Orders to departing steamships came surging 
over his line. Suddenly a strong whining note 
filled the air, drowning out all other notes, and 
Henry knew the Brooklyn Navy Yard was talk¬ 
ing. He caught messages from the Waldorf, 
from the Wanamaker station, from the police 
wireless. Never had he heard so many messages 
or imagined that the. air could be so filled with 
talk. And had he not been a very able operator, 
he would have been so confused by the babel that 
he would have understood none of it clearly. 
But he tuned sharply, shutting out interfering 
vibrations, and caught clearly message after 
message. But every message that he intercepted 
was sent by a regularly licensed station. 

After he had sufficiently tested his instruments, 
and assured himself of their ability to register 


62 


THE SECKET WIKELESS 


even the faintest sounds sharply and distinctly, 
Henry shifted his coils and condensers again and 
began to listen in for messages of less than three 
hundred meters’ wave length. Instantly the 
room that had hummed with voices grew silent as 
a cave. No message, no vibrations, no whisper 
of sound came to his waiting ears. For three 
hours he sat, continually shifting his coils, but he 
heard nothing. As well might he have sat three 
hours by a rock, waiting for it to speak. And 
well he knew that this was only the first of many 
long weary watches that would be kept ere the 
voice they looked for would come out of the air. 

Vividly Henry recalled the long vigils at Camp 
Brady, when he sat for many hours at a time 
listening for the call of the dynamiters. He re¬ 
membered how irksome that had been. He 
remembered the chill of the night and the silence 
of the great forest. Here the watchers would be 
more comfortable, but the vigil was likely to be 
as tedious and trying as their watch in the Penn¬ 
sylvania mountains had proved. But that watch 
had been rewarded. The dynamiters had been 
located and captured. And Henry never 


THE MESSAGE IN CIPHER 


63 


doubted that this vigil, too, would meet with 
success. So he schooled himself to patience and 
keyed his ear and his instrument to the keenest 
pitch. 

Meantime his companions had lost not a 
moment in beginning their study of the city. 
When Captain Hardy emerged from the wireless 
room, he ran his eye over the contents of the book¬ 
shelves; and one section he discovered was filled 
with maps and guide-books and local histories, 
not only of New York but also of other American 
cities. He found a large-scale map of the 
metropolis and spread it out on the table, true 
to the indicated compass points. Clustered 
about this outspread map, the other members of 
the patrol followed with eager eyes and retentive 
minds their instructor’s every word. 

Dr. Hardy called their attention to the contour 
of Manhattan Island, long and tongue-shaped, 
and running almost north and south. He 
showed them the main thoroughfares, the great 
arteries of north and south traffic. He traced 
for them the routes of subway, surface, and 
elevated car lines. Together they located the 


64 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


tunnels and the ferries. They studied the harbor 
and the different shipping districts, coming 
quickly to know where the transatlantic liners 
docked, where the coastwise steamers were 
berthed, and where tramp steamers could find 
safe anchorages. They examined the harbor 
and adjacent waterways. They studied the loca¬ 
tions of police stations and hospitals, of passenger 
stations and freight depots. They noted the 
location of the forts. They identified the sites 
of the largest buildings. 

When they had finished with Manhattan, they 
studied one by one the other boroughs—the 
Bronx, the boroughs east of Manhattan, Staten 
Island, and finally the Jersey shore, searching 
always for what would lend itself to spying or 
the use of a secret wireless. Especially they 
studied all that related to ships that cross the 
Atlantic. 

Not in one evening or in one day was this 
accomplished, but through the long hours of 
many days, as one boy after another took his turn 
at the wireless. And between tricks at listening 
in or studying maps and guide-books, they 


THE MESSAGE IN CIPHER 


65 


roamed the streets, traveled on subway and sur¬ 
face and elevated trains, crossed the ferries, rode 
in the sightseeing motors, visited the bridges, the 
museums, the public buildings, and within a short 
time knew more about the topography and 
geography of the city than nine-tenths of the 
people who lived in it. As they became accus¬ 
tomed to the noise and the confusion and were 
able to find their way about with ease, they 
scraped acquaintances on every side, and soon 
knew a multitude of newsies, porters, policemen, 
truck drivers, car-conductors, and others. 

Hour after hour, day after day, night after 
night, they listened in. A week passed. Then 
another went by. But excepting for one or two 
snatches of talk, seemingly innocent, the watchers 
at the wireless caught nothing. 

Then, as Roy was listening in one noon while 
his comrades were down-stairs at luncheon, there 
was a sudden buzzing in his ear. Rapidly he 
shifted coil and condenser until the vibrations 
came sharp and clear. A call was sounding. 
2XB was calling 5ZM. Roy seized his pencil 
and copied the signals, at the same time trying 


66 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


hard to locate the direction from which the signals 
came. It was well that Roy was a fast operator, 
for the message that followed came with such 
rapidity that it taxed Roy’s ability to catch it. 
But he managed to get every letter. When the 
message was ended, Roy reached for his list of 
stations and rapidly ran through it. The stations 
he had overheard were not listed. There could 
be no doubt about it. He had caught a message 
from a secret wireless. He turned to the paper 
with the message. Here is what he had written 
down: SRPSTSNIAOLTMIXNRE 
HONTSTFIRG. But he could make no 
sense of it. The letters would not form them¬ 
selves into words, combine them as he would. 
He rose and ran to the dining-room with the 
paper. 

Captain Hardy studied it for an instant. 
“ Take this at once to Chief Flynn,” he said. 
“ He may want to ask some questions about it. 
Willie will relieve you at the wireless.” 

Several hours passed before Roy returned, and 
Captain Hardy began to fear lest, despite the 
training in the geography of the city, Roy had 


THE MESSAGE IN CIPHER 


67 


become confused and gotten lost. Then suddenly 
the door of the wireless apartment burst open 
and Roy flew in. 

“ Chief Flynn told me he thought his men 
could unravel that message and that I should 
wait a while,” panted Roy, breathless from 
running up the stairs. “ And they did get it. 
It’s what they call a transposition cipher. Here 
is what it says.” 

He held out a sheet of paper. On it the letters 
Roy had picked out of the air were arranged in 
four lines, as follows: 

S R P S T S N 
I A O L T M I 
X N R E H O N 
T S T F I R G 

“ Read down instead of across,” explained 
Roy. 

Captain Hardy studied the cipher a moment 
more, then read aloud: “ Six transports left 
this morning.” 


CHAPTER VI 


A NEW DANGER POINT 


OR a moment there was dead silence. Then 



A Captain Hardy spoke. “ You have done 
excellent work, Roy,” he said. “ Beyond doubt 
this is a message from a German spy. It is 
fortunate you caught this particular message, 
for it proves that, whether there is a leak in the 
navy department or not, the Germans are watch¬ 
ing our ships here in New York. Did you catch 
the direction this came from, Roy? ” 

“ Yes, sir. I marked the direction on the 
blotter beneath the detector.” 

“ We’ll take a look at it,” said the leader, and 
the little band entered the wireless room, where 
Lew was now on duty. 

On the white blotter they found a long black 
line, tipped with an angle mark like an arrow¬ 
head. Captain Hardy got a map of the city, 
and spreading it on the table true to the compass 


68 


A NEW DANGER POINT 


69 


points, stretched a yardstick across it in the direc¬ 
tion indicated by the arrow. 

“ Hoboken,” he muttered. “ The arrow points 
to Hoboken.” For a moment he studied the map 
before him. “ You will remember,” he said, 
looking up, “ that Hoboken is the point on the 
Jersey side of the Hudson where there are such 
great railroad freight yards and such huge piers. 
Many Atlantic liners sail from Hoboken. 
Evidently the Germans are watching there. 
Of course they would be. Their spies are in¬ 
forming other German agents every time a troop 
ship sails. And somehow they get that news to 
Germany. It’s a terrible menace to our army, 
boys. We must put an end to it.” 

“We will,” came the reply from four sober¬ 
faced boys. 

“ It’s going to be a long task, boys,” said Cap¬ 
tain Hardy. “ Get your hats and we’ll take a 
look at Hoboken.” 

Leaving Lew at the wireless, the four others 
set out. They rode for a distance on a Ninth 
Avenue elevated train, then walked to the ferry, 
and in less than an hour of the time they left 


70 


THE SECEET WIKELESS 


their headquarters found themselves in the great 
Jersey shipping point. 

Never had the boys from Central City seen 
anything quite like the water-front at Hoboken. 
The level ground was one great maze of railroad 
tracks, freight depots, warehouses, and pier sheds. 
The wide thoroughfare running along the water¬ 
front presented a scene of bewildering confusion. 
Trolley-cars, steam trains, motor trucks, horse- 
drawn vehicles, and other conveyances were 
moving this way and that. Whistles were toot¬ 
ing, motors honking, bells ringing, drivers swear¬ 
ing, policemen shouting orders. Pedestrians 
were dodging in and out, messenger boys were 
darting here and there. Porters were carrying 
bundles on their shoulders, laborers were wheel¬ 
ing materials in steel wheelbarrows, lines of 
heavily laden trucks were passing into steamship 
piers, and guards and watchmen at every entrance 
were closely scrutinizing all who approached. 

The four observers walked slowly along, study¬ 
ing every foot of the way. High fences had been 
built here and there to hide what was going on 
behind them. Covered ways led from railway 


A NEW DANGER POINT 


71 


terminals to pier sheds so that none could see 
what had come by train. Even the gangways 
to the ships were screened. Every precaution 
had been taken to baffle curious eyes. 

“ They’ve done their best,” commented Cap¬ 
tain Hardy, “ but they can’t screen a ship on the 
river, and the Germans know when our transports 
sail, even if they don’t know what’s in them. 
Any one with a good glass can look out from any 
house along the river front and see clearly every 
move made by a steamer. Let’s take a stroll 
among these houses.” 

They left the bustling water-front and passed 
to the higher ground where stood the city proper. 
It was like most other American municipalities— 
dirty, dingy, and unattractive, a hotchpotch of 
buildings with no architectural unity. But it 
had one feature possessed by few cities—an out¬ 
look on a great and busy harbor. 

As the boys stood looking at the rolling Hud¬ 
son below them, watching the ferry-boats come 
and go, like huge shuttles in a giant loom, follow¬ 
ing the movements of steamers, and tugs and tow¬ 
boats, and tracing the circling flight of the gulls, 


72 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


they forgot entirely the errand that had brought 
them. Presently their leader broke the silence. 

“We shall have to get to work,” he said. 

Starting at one end of the street, they walked 
slowly along its entire length, studying every 
house that fronted on the river. They saw at 
once that their task was hopeless. Square after 
square the houses stretched in unbroken blocks. 
A hundred spies might be living in those houses 
and no one be the wiser. A hundred wireless 
outfits might be flashing messages among the 
clothes-lines on the roofs and only a roof to roof 
survey would reveal the fact. But it was not 
necessary to run even so slender a risk of dis¬ 
covery. As the wireless patrol knew only too 
well, an aerial would work with great efficiency 
even though it were strung in a chimney or 
erected entirely within doors. Yet the little 
party continued its investigation until dusk, 
scanning every window whence a glass might be 
directed toward the river, and threading alleys 
and scrutinizing the wires of roofs and yards. 
But nowhere did they see anything to arouse 
their suspicion. 


A NEW DANGER POINT 


73 


“ We may as well go back, boys,” their leader 
said at last. “ We shall have to depend upon 
our ears rather than our eyes if we are to catch 
these villains. But we have made progress. 
We know where they are. We have limited our 
field of observation to one place. Now we shall 
have to do as we did at Elk City. We shall have 
to get two portable sets with compact detectors 
and begin a watch in Hoboken. We’ll have to 
find this hidden wireless by triangulation, just as 
we caught the dynamiters. But we haven’t 
enough of a force to maintain two watches. We 
shall likely have to send for more of the boys to 
come on.” 

They recrossed the river and made their way 
back to their headquarters. Lew had heard 
nothing. He was relieved by Henry. 

The others went down to dinner, and food was 
sent up to the lone watcher. But when his trick 
was ended, he made the same report that Lew had 
rendered. He, too, had heard nothing. 

“ Doubtless,” said Captain Hardy, “ they use 
their wireless seldom for fear of discovery. 
Probably they send a message only when troop 


74 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


ships have actually sailed. That is likely the 
reason it was such a long time before we caught 
the first message. And it may be just as long 
before we hear another. But when it comes, we 
must be ready with our two detectors. I’ll see 
Chief Flynn about them in the morning. And 
I’ll tell him what we have learned in addition to 
what the cipher message told us.” 

“ I wonder,” said Roy, “ how the secret service 
men ever unraveled that cipher. I could never 
have done it. I was looking for something like 
the code message we caught at Camp Brady.” 

“ It probably was not very difficult, Roy,” re¬ 
plied Captain Hardy, “ or it could not have been 
fathomed so soon. I believe that most cipher 
messages to-day are like the one you caught at 
Camp Brady. Apparently they are innocent 
messages but they have a hidden meaning. The 
most difficult cipher messages, I have heard, are 
of the substitution kind, where many alphabets 
are used. It is pretty difficult to decipher such 
messages unless you have the key word.” 

“ Then why didn’t the Germans use a substitu¬ 
tion cipher when they sent this message about the 


A NEW DANGER POINT 


75 


transports?” asked Willie. “Then we might 
never have been able to tell what they said.” 

“ It was hardly worth while, Willie. They 
know the authorities are listening for their 
messages. It made no particular difference if 
the contents of this message were known. But 
when they send out an order for a spy to do 
something, I have no doubt they use the most 
difficult code they can devise, or at least one that 
they believe only the spy will understand. So 
we may expect to catch messages in different 
codes before we are through with our work.” 

Captain Hardy rose and began to look along 
the shelves of books. “ Here is a volume,” he 
said presently, “ that will tell us a great deal 
about cipher messages.” 

He had just laid open the book when Roy 
rushed in from the wireless room. “ I’ve got 
another message,” he said, holding out a paper 
on which was a long string of letters. 

“ I wasn’t expecting another message so soon,” 
said Captain Hardy in surprise. Slowly he read 
the letters on the paper Roy had given him: 
“FTSTITEIAFTDLLTNSYWT 


76 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

ORPSLHVNRLEEYLIOTEITI 
UAOSEIEGGEVNCENDRRTE 
RNRADSNLEEITOCGEOSH M.” 

“ It looks like the same cipher used before,” he 
went on. “ If it is, we can unravel this message 
without bothering the secret service. At any 
rate we’ll make a try at it. Where’s that other 
message, Willie? ” 

The first message was brought. Captain 
Hardy spread it on the table and the group bent 
over it. 

“ The letters divide evenly into four lines, you 
notice,” said the leader. “ Let’s see if this 
message will do the same.” 

He counted the letters with his pencil. 
“ Eighty,” he announced. “ That would make 
four lines of twenty letters each. We’ll try 
it.” 

Rapidly he copied the first twenty letters. 
Relow them he made a second line of the next 
twenty letters. Then the third set of twenty 
was written down. As he began the fourth row 
the three boys at his side held their breath. 

“ He’s got it,” Willie Brown cried, as Captain 


A NEW DANGER POINT 


77 


Hardy wrote down the first letter. “ He’s got 
it. It spells four.” 

Rapidly Captain Hardy finished out his line. 
The letters he had written down read like this: 

FTSTITEIAFTDLLTNSYWT 
ORPS LHVNRLEEYLIOTE IH 
UAOS El EGGEVNCENDRRT E 
RNRADS NLEE ITOCGEOSHM 

He picked up the paper and slowly spelled out 
the following message: “ Four—transports— 
sailed—this—evening—Large—fleet—evidently 
—collecting—No—destroyers—with—them.” 

For a moment there was complete silence. 
Then Henry spoke. “ They can see everything 
in Hoboken,” he said. “ It’s a wonderful place 
to spy from.” 

“ That message didn’t come from Hoboken,” 
said Roy, who had been listening to their con¬ 
versation with one ear while he kept his receiver 
at the other. “ It was for 5ZM all right, but it 
was signed 2XC instead of 2XB and the detector 
doesn’t point toward Hoboken.” 

There was a rush for the wireless room. Cap- 


78 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


tain Hardy seized a map, spread it on the table, 
and again applied the yardstick, extending it in 
the direction indicated by the detector. The 
stick pointed straight toward the Narrows, at the 
entrance to the harbor. 

“ That message came from Staten Island,” 
said Captain Hardy with conviction. “ They 
have got two secret stations.” 


CHAPTER VII 


CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED 
S the possibility of this new difficulty rose 



before them, the members of the wireless 
patrol were almost staggered. They knew how 
difficult it had been to locate the hidden wireless 
in the mountains at the Elk City storage reser¬ 
voir, where there were no other wireless plants to 
distract them and no houses to conceal the ap¬ 
paratus. The obstacles now before them ap¬ 
peared almost insuperable. 

The silence was broken by their leader. “ I 
suppose we shall not learn anything, but at least 
it will be better to look the ground over. So in 
the morning we’ll run over to Staten Island.” 

Morning found Henry on the wireless watch. 
Lew’s trick was to follow. The two others and 
Captain Hardy left the house immediately after 
their breakfast and set off for Staten Island. In 
order to see something of the city as they jour- 


79 


80 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

neyed, they went on the Ninth Avenue elevated 
road, and in half an hour found themselves at 
South Ferry, whence the city-owned ferry-boats 
leave for Staten Island. It was their first visit 
to this ferry and they were impressed by the fine 
waiting-rooms and the magnificent ferry-boats. 

The trip down the harbor thrilled them with 
pleasure. The narrow channel between Man¬ 
hattan Island and Governor’s Island seemed to 
be filled with snorting tugboats, strings of barges, 
great floats carrying many loaded freight-cars, 
puffing steamships, and even sailing vessels. 
Whistles were tooting on every side as pilots 
signaled to one another. 

“ I don’t see how they ever manage to keep 
from smashing into one another,” said Willie as 
he stood with wide eyes, watching the rapidly 
moving craft about him. 

“ They don’t always,” said Captain Hardy. 
“ But accidents are surprisingly few.” 

Hardly had they gotten up speed before they 
passed close to Governor’s Island, the military 
reservation which was the army headquarters for 
the Department of the East. With great inter- 


CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED 81 

est they looked at Castle William, the great 
circular stone fort, now useless for protection, 
but venerable with age and tradition, that stood 
at the western edge of the island. 

Soon they were past the island and out in the 
open bay. Far to the left were the Brooklyn 
shores, with their great shipping terminals and 
stores and clustered steamers. On the right, and 
still more distant, ran the low Jersey coast, al¬ 
most hidden in fog and smoke. Against this 
dull background towered the Statue of Liberty. 
Reverently the boys stood looking at this great 
image, known the world over as no other statue 
is known, and symbolic of all a free earth holds 
dear—symbolic of that liberty, fraternity, equal¬ 
ity that the free men of the world are giving their 
lives to preserve. A mist rose in their eyes as 
they looked at this symbol of that which they, 
too, were giving their devoted efforts to pre¬ 
serve—their homes, their families, their freedom. 
And on every face came a set expression of 
determination that, even though the countenances 
wearing it were youthful, boded no good to the 
treacherous enemies of freedom whose trail they 


82 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


were that very moment following. Then they 
flashed past Robbin’s Reef light and snuggled 
into their slip at Staten Island. 

Before them towered the community of St. 
George, straggling, like some old world village, 
up the sloping streets to the heights. Quickly 
they climbed a winding road that led to the top 
of the hill. Like Jerusalem the golden, the vil¬ 
lage about them was beautiful for situation. For 
miles it commanded an unobstructed view in al¬ 
most every direction. To the north were the 
rolling reaches of the Upper Bay across which 
they had come, with the tall sky-scrapers of Man¬ 
hattan towering heavenward in the background 
and looking so near at hand that it was hard to 
believe that they were six miles distant. Shaped 
not unlike a pear, the great Bay tapered to stem¬ 
like dimensions as it flowed to the east of Staten 
Island and found its way to that greater sheet of 
water, the Lower Bay. On the opposite side of 
this passage rose the bluff shores of Brooklyn. 
But the Staten Island shore towered high above 
everything else. On opposite sides of the nar¬ 
rowest parts of the channel to the sea were forts. 


CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED 83 

And it was to this very Narrows that the wireless 
detector had pointed when Roy caught the mes¬ 
sage on the previous night. 

“ From somewhere in this neighborhood that 
message came/’ said Captain Hardy. “ And be¬ 
yond a doubt it came from some house on the 
slope before us. From this view-point an ob¬ 
server can see everything that takes place in both 
Upper and Lower Bay and spy on every vessel 
passing through the Narrows. With a powerful 
glass an observer on these slopes could almost 
distinguish the buttons on the sailors’ clothes or 
read the compass on the bridge of a ship. Let 
us see what we can find.” 

For a mile or two they walked leisurely along 
the brow of the hill, carefully examining every 
house that possessed a good outlook over the 
Narrows. They found many such, but as was 
the case in Hoboken, the houses were as like as 
so many peas. In location or construction there 
was nothing that would direct the finger of sus¬ 
picion to one house rather than another. Any 
house with an unobstructed outlook might harbor 
a spy. 


84 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

When they had gone far enough along the 
brow of the hill Captain Hardy said, “ Let us 
go back along the slope. I suspect any observer 
would get as near to the water as he could and 
yet have sufficient elevation for a wide view. I 
believe the place we are looking for is somewhere 
below us.” 

They climbed down to a lower level and began 
their return walk. On the slope the buildings 
were not so close together. There were more 
open spaces, more undeveloped stretches where 
trees yet remained and thickets of underbrush 
still stood undisturbed. 

“ These houses would make better radio sta¬ 
tions than those so closely crowded together, I 
should think,” commented Captain Hardy. 

Slowly they sauntered along, stopping near 
every suspicious house, ostensibly to view the 
landscape, and giving it a searching examination 
as they took in the view. And so artfully was 
their work done that no one watching the eager 
group, looking now here, now there, would have 
dreamed that ships and shipping were the last 
things they were interested in. 


CONFUSION WOKSE CONFOUNDED 85 

Slowly they worked their way along the slope, 
now climbing to higher levels, now descending 
to lower, as it became necessary to view a habita¬ 
tion from one side or the other. But search as 
they might, nothing stood out in any place that 
was of a suspicious nature. There were no ques¬ 
tionable wire clothes-lines, for here every one 
seemed to use cotton lines. No flagpoles rose 
aloft, up which antennae wires could be hoisted 
in the guise of halyards. No kites flew from 
back yards. No lightning-rods rose suspiciously 
above the housetops. There were no tall chim¬ 
neys inside which hidden wires might be 
stretched. Nowhere was there anything at which 
they could definitely point the finger of suspi¬ 
cion. 

Almost had they given up hope of finding any¬ 
thing that would help them, when they came to a 
place where the slope jutted out sharply for a 
little space, like the nose on a human face. The 
ground sloped outward for a distance at a gentle 
angle, then dropped precipitously many feet. 
But on either side of the nose of land the even 
slope of the hill was unbroken, just as human 


86 


THE SECEET WIBELESB 


cheeks continue their uninterrupted slope from 
the forehead. Perched on this nose of land was 
an inconspicuous little house. As the surround¬ 
ing land was too steep for habitation, this house 
stood by itself, the slope for many yards on either 
side being overgrown with bushes and under¬ 
growths, while a considerable stand of pines grew 
at one side. The fenced-in yard of this house 
was large, and by an ingenious system of curves 
a roadway had been built from the public thor¬ 
oughfare up to the little house. Evidently the 
owner possessed a motor-car, for a tiny garage 
was snuggled into the hill beside the dwell¬ 
ing. 

But the thing that at once attracted the little 
patrol was the view afforded by the location. 
Indeed it was the view-point strategically; for 
the jutting nose of land gave an unobstructed 
outlook toward both Bays which could be had 
from no other location on the same level, while 
the Narrows lay immediately below the house 
and so close that it seemed as though one could 
throw a stone from the little house into the 
water. 


CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED 87 

For several minutes the three searchers stared 
at the structure before them. “ I believe,’’ said 
Willie, in the language of blind man’s buff, “ that 
we are getting hot.” 

“ Let’s look at the place from the other side,” 
suggested Roy. 

Slowly they sauntered along the highway, now 
examining the Narrows, now watching some ship 
in the offing, but gradually working their way 
to the other side of the little house. Every¬ 
where except at the rear of the building, where 
the hill rose steeply, ornamental rows of windows 
had been built into the structure, giving an unin¬ 
terrupted view, north, east, and south. 

“ I’ll bet there are no partition walls in that 
floor,” said Roy, “ and if there aren’t, anybody 
could sit in the front of the house and look in 
three directions by merely turning his head. 
Why that place is just made for spying on ship¬ 
ping.” 

“ And it’s exactly where our wireless pointed,” 
said Willie. 

“ I wonder how we could get into the place and 
examine it.” 


88 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


“ You mustn’t think of such a thing,” said 
Captain Hardy. “ If there is a wireless outfit 
there, you may be sure that it will be as effectu¬ 
ally secreted as the one in our rooms is, and you 
would never find it. But you would certainly 
alarm the people in the house, and the Chief 
warned me that under no circumstances should 
we alarm the people we are watching. We must 
get a complete case against them before any move 
is made.” 

“ But if this is a wireless station, how are we 
going to know it unless we search the house? ” 
demanded Roy. 

“We shall have to keep a watch on the house 
itself and try to trail everybody who goes in or 
out. And we shall keep up our wireless watch. 
If messages are coming from here we shall run 
them down just as we intended to run down the 
Hoboken messages. This place is so much bet¬ 
ter for spy work, being near the forts as well as 
the waterways, that we’ll drop Hoboken and 
centre our efforts here. But I don’t know just 
how we’ll do it. I’ll have to let the Chief outline 
the plan. We may have to move down here. 


CONFUSION WOESE CONFOUNDED 89 

But in the meantime you boys can keep the place 
under observation very easily from some of these 
thickets.” 

The three went on down the road and passed 
out of sight of the house, laying their plans as 
they went. Arrived at the road to the ferry, they 
separated, Captain Hardy continuing on down 
to the wharf, while Willie and Roy turned about 
and retraced their steps. While Captain Hardy 
was speeding back to Manhattan to consult the 
secret service men, the two young scouts made 
their way to a turn of the road whence they could 
barely see a gable of the house on the cliff. They 
had not met a soul. They left the highway and 
scrambled up the slope to a dense thicket of 
underbrush. Screened by this, they cautiously 
approached the house and made their way unseen 
into the little stand of pines they had previously 
noted. 

The cover was good. The pines on the outer 
edges of the stand, where the light was ample, 
branched close to the ground, making a dense 
hedge. Behind these protecting branches the 
two boys could move freely without fear of dis- 


90 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


covery. By mounting upward a little distance, 
they had a perfect view of the house they were 
watching, and could see all who entered or left 
it. They found some limbs where they could sit 
comfortably and took up their vigil. 

“ Captain Hardy said we must trail anybody 
who came out of the house,” said Willie. “ If 
we follow them on the road we could be seen and 
we might be suspected. How can we trail them 
without being seen? ” 

They looked around. Higher up the slope ran 
another road, so hidden by shrubbery and bushy 
growths as to be almost invisible from below. A 
person walking along this road could easily fol¬ 
low one on the highway below without being seen. 
A brief study of the slope also showed them a 
bushy way by which they could scramble unseen 
up to this road. 

Now they gave their undivided attention to the 
house before them, studying every feature of 
house and grounds that they might be able, if it 
became necessary, to make their way safely about 
the premises. But no one came to the house, no 
one left it, no one appeared at a window, and 


CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED 91 

there was no sign whatever that a living being 
was in the house. 

The minutes began to drag. It was uninter¬ 
esting to sit and scrutinize a house when there 
was so much of real interest to see. So between 
glances at the home on the cliff, the scouts began 
to study anew the wonderful harbor that so 
fascinated them. 

Again they studied those distant sky-scrapers, 
which looked, at the distance, like dream build¬ 
ings, deceptive structures of the clouds. The 
waters intervening were palpitant with life. As 
an hour passed, and then another, the young 
watchers gave more and more attention to the 
landscape and less to the house near by. The 
air was vibrant with the tooting of whistles. The 
wind was sweeping the water before it in graceful 
waves. The passing steamers churned it into 
yeasty foam. Great sailing ships came surging 
in from the deeps, deck-laden with heavy cargoes, 
parting the water with their high bows, their sails 
bellying in the breeze and shining white in the 
sun. Tugs passed restlessly to and fro, dragging 
behind them long strings of coal barges. And 


92 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


once a great ocean liner came in through the 
Narrows, making the very hills vibrate with the 
thunder of her whistle. Intently the boys 
watched her as she slowed at quarantine and the 
port physicians boarded her. By mere chance 
Willie turned his glance toward the house on the 
cliff, and there, close to the front windows, stood 
a man with field-glasses to his eyes, studying the 
liner in the Narrows below. 

“ Look! ” gasped Willie. “ There’s a man in 
the window! ” 

But before Roy could turn his head the figure 
had disappeared. 

“We almost missed him,” said Willie. 
“ We’re poor scouts to forget what we are 
about.” 

They centred their gaze on the near-by house. 
Forgotten was the glorious picture spread before 
them, forgotten everything but the glass-fronted 
dwelling and the invisible man with the field- 
glasses. But look as they would, they could see 
nothing further of a suspicious nature. Another 
hour passed. Dinner time had long gone by. 
The one o’clock whistle had blown. And their 


CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED 93 

own stomachs told them accurately what time it 
was; but they would not leave their post. Now 
that they had once scented their quarry, as it 
were, or believed that they had, they were like 
hounds on the trail. Their training at Camp 
Brady now showed its effect. 

But the hours passed, the afternoon waned, 
and nothing further occurred to draw their atten¬ 
tion to the little house. Gradually their vigilance 
relaxed. Their eyes wandered again to that 
fascinating harbor scene, to the never-ending 
moving picture spread before them. Again they 
saw tugs and ferry-boats plying busily back and 
forth, and the flashing sails of great schooners. 
But presently they saw something like nothing 
they had ever beheld. Far in the distance was a 
line of moving objects, gliding through the waves 
in stately fashion, approaching one behind the 
other at equal distances. Just what was ap¬ 
proaching the two scouts could not at first de¬ 
termine, so indistinct in outline were the moving 
bulks. But presently, as the oncoming objects 
drew nearer, the watchers saw that they were 
great ships. But they looked unlike any ships 


94 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


they had ever seen or heard of. They seemed to 
be of no color and of every color. They were 
streaked and splotched in the most curious way. 
They looked as though some giant hand had flung 
eggs of different colors against their sides. 

The boys looked at one another in astonish¬ 
ment. “ Well, what in the mischief ails those 
boats? ” demanded Roy. 

They were silent a moment, becoming more 
amazed than ever. 

“ I know,” cried Willie suddenly. “ They’re 
camouflaged. They must be transports.” He 
turned his head for a glance at the house. 
“Quick!” he said. “There’s the man at the 
window again.” 

For some minutes the figure before them 
stood motionless except for the movement of his 
field-glasses, with which he swept the oncoming 
fleet of transports. Then he drew back from the 
window again. The boys kept their eyes fastened 
on the little house. For a long time nothing 
occurred. Then a grocer’s boy came in sight, 
struggling up the highway with a basket of sup¬ 
plies on his arm. The watchers paid small atten- 


CONFUSION WOESE CONFOUNDED 95 

tion to him until he turned suddenly into the 
driveway leading up to the house. A mo¬ 
ment later he had disappeared within the build¬ 
ing. 

“ He’s only a grocery boy,” said Roy. 

“ We’ll have to watch him, anyway,” said 
Willie. “ I’ll follow him when he comes out and 
you watch the house.” 

They had not long to wait. In a few minutes 
the boy came out, his basket empty, and went 
skipping down the hill. Quick as a flash Willie 
scrambled to the roadway above, and, screened 
by the shrubbery, followed on the higher level. 
A quarter mile toward the ferry the two high¬ 
ways came together. Willie reached the inter¬ 
section at almost the same time as the grocer’s 
boy. Each took a glance at the other and kept 
on his way, Willie dropping a few yards behind 
the other lad. 

A quarter of a mile further on the slope 
changed and the district was thickly built up. 
The errand boy soon entered a store. Willie had 
just time for a quick glance at the sign on the 
window. It read, “ Fritz Berger, Fancy Gro- 


96 


THE SECEET WIKELESS 


ceries.” Then Willie opened the door and fol¬ 
lowed the errand boy into the place. 

A florid, burly man with upturned mustaches 
stood behind the counter. The errand boy was 
talking to him. In his hand he held a silver 
dollar. 

“ Here is the money for Mr. Baum’s sugar,” 
he was saying. 

“ Good! ” said the grocer, seizing the coin, 
which he dropped in his pocket. Then he turned 
to Willie. “ Well? ” he said inquiringly. 

“ Sugar,” said Willie. “ I want five pounds 
of sugar.” 

“ I have no more,” said the grocer. “ It is all 
sold.” 

“Pshaw!” said Willie. “Where can I get 
some? ” 

“ I don’t know,” said the grocer. 

“ Got any candy? ” asked Willie. 

“ Sure. In that case.” 

Willie walked to the show-case and slowly ex¬ 
amined the stock. “ Give me ten cents’ worth of 
those chocolates,” he finally ordered. 

The storekeeper weighed out the candy and 


CONFUSION WOKSE CONFOUNDED 97 

dumped it in a bag. He took the proffered dime, 
dropped it in his till, and turned away. 

Willie left the store and stood for a moment 
undecided as to which way to go. “ Nothing 
doing there,” he said to himself. Then he 
turned a corner and started down the hill. The 
supper hour was approaching. People were 
coming up the street from the ferry, homeward 
bound from Manhattan. A motor-car came 
chugging up the road and drew close to the curb. 
The driver turned his car about, clamped on the 
brake, and stepped out, leaving his engine 
running. Willie went on down the street and 
was soon in the midst of a throng coming up from 
the ferry. He stopped to look at a jeweler’s 
clock, turned about, and started on his way to 
rejoin Roy. Suddenly he heard the softly 
whistled signal of the wireless patrol. He turned 
sharply about and saw Captain Hardy across the 
street. He dodged a motor-car that was coming 
down the hill and crossed to his captain. There 
had been no sign of life about the little house 
since the grocer’s boy came out. 

“ Come,” said the leader. “ I have srart the 


98 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Chief and he is going to arrange it so that we can 
watch this place in comfort. We will go back 
home now.” 

They climbed cautiously to the road above. 
“By George!” exclaimed Captain Hardy 
suddenly. “ You boys haven’t had a bite 
to eat since breakfast. I forgot all about 
that.” 

“ How about yourself? ” asked Roy. 

“ Well, I haven’t either, but that’s different. 
I’ve had a chance to get something if I had 
thought of it. We won’t wait until we get home 
to eat. There’s a restaurant at the ferry-house. 
We’ll have a good dinner there.” 

More than an hour passed before the three rose 
from their table. Another hour had gone by 
before they reached their headquarters. They 
were tired and sleepy. But their drowsiness 
vanished when Henry rushed into the living- 
room of their apartment and thrust a sheet of 
paper into Captain Hardy’s hands. 

“ It’s another message,” he said, “ and we 
deciphered it ourselves.” 

Captain Hardy stepped to the light and read 


CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED 


99 


the message aloud. “Five more transports sailed 
late this afternoon. All camouflaged.’’ 

“ We know the man who sent that message,” 
cried Willie. “ We’ve been watching him all the 
afternoon, down on the hillside at Staten Island.” 

“ But this message didn’t come from Staten 
Island,” said Henry. “ The detector points 
straight east over Brooklyn, and the message was 
sent from a long way off. It was very faint.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


WHERE MONEY TALKED 

TTOR a full minute the members of the wireless 
■*" patrol stared at one another in speechless 
amazement. Then Willie broke the silence. 

“ I don’t care where it came from,” he said. 
“ I just know that the man we were watching 
sent it.” 

“ But how could he have sent it, when the wire¬ 
less pointed to Brooklyn? ” demanded Henry. 

“ Oh! I don’t mean that he actually sent it with 
his own fingers,” said Willie. “ But we saw him 
watching the ships and there isn’t any other place 
in the whole harbor where you can get such a 
good view of them. I just know he had some¬ 
thing to do with that message.” 

“ I’ll bet the Germans have got a string of 
wireless outfits and. that what he does is to stay 

in that house and spy on ships that pass through 
100 


WHERE MONEY TALKED 101 

the Narrows and then telephone to one of these 
secret wireless stations,” said the nimble-witted 
Roy. “ And if that’s the case he hasn’t any 
wireless at all himself.” 

“ If Roy is right,” said Henry, “ it’s a pretty 
clever scheme. The secret service could take his 
house to pieces and not find a wire in it. Yet 
he’s the man that’s sending the messages, or at 
least starting them.” 

“ Roy is doubtless correct,” said their leader. 
“We know they have at least three stations and 
they may have many more. The object of that, 
of course, is to baffle any wireless man who may 
be on their track. If we hadn’t stumbled on this 
spy post at Staten Island, we should have been 
completely blocked ourselves. But we’ve got 
something definite to work on now. We’ve got 
a definite clue. And sooner or later we will un¬ 
cover some of their hidden stations. From now 
on we’ve got to watch this man on Staten Island 
as well as listen for messages. I don’t see how 
we are to do it unless we send for more of the 
boys or move to Staten Island.” 

When the matter was laid before Chief Flynn 


102 


THE SECEET WIRELESS 


he said no more boys were needed. Too many 
boys in one house would attract attention. So he 
arranged to transfer the wireless patrol to Staten 
Island. Living on the slope above the suspected 
house was a well-to-do but childless couple with 
a rather large house, who were warm friends of 
the Chief’s; and they readily agreed, as a matter 
of service to their country, to take the wireless 
patrol into their home. So a wireless outfit was 
installed, with a concealed aerial, and the boys 
found themselves situated even more pleasantly 
than they had been before. 

And it was well that they were pleasantly 
situated, for though their task was not difficult 
in one sense, in another it was extremely trying. 
Six hours a day each boy sat at the wireless 
listening in. Had it been possible to tune to 
longer wave lengths and pick up the interesting 
news with which the air was fairly alive, the task 
would have been anything but irksome. But to 
sit hour after hour with their instruments tuned 
to the short wave lengths used by the German 
agents and hear nothing, was trying enough. 
The watch on the spy’s nest proved hardly less 


WHERE MONEY TALKED 


103 


tedious. From a gable-window in the attic a 
very fair view could be had of the little house 
below. Here, on rainy days, a watcher sat dur¬ 
ing all the hours of daylight; and on other days 
the sheltering pines hid an observer. But day 
followed day, night succeeded night, and no 
message was registered on the wireless instru¬ 
ment nor did anything suspicious occur in the 
house under surveillance. 

Indeed the fact that nothing did occur was in 
itself suspicious. For there was hardly a sign of 
life about the house. No man left it in the morn¬ 
ing bound for business. No woman emerged 
from its door to go shopping of an afternoon. 
For days at a time nobody entered or left the 
place, excepting the grocer’s boy who came with 
food. 

Then one day a motor-car, with its top raised, 
chugged up the highway and climbed the steep 
driveway to the house on the cliff. Henry was 
in the attic gable on watch and he promptly noti¬ 
fied his comrades. There was a rush for the third 
story, and four heads crowded close together as 
four pairs of eyes sought to identify the make 


104 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


and number of the car. But the name-plate was 
missing, and the license tag was so dusty that 
the number could not be read. 

“ Run down to the pines with this, quick,” said 
Captain Hardy, thrusting his field-glasses into 
Willie’s hand, “ and get the number of that car. 
See if you can tell what make it is and look for 
distinguishing marks.” 

Willie scrambled down the slope through the 
concealing shrubbery and approached the house 
as near as he dared. But he had hardly reached 
his station when the driver ran down the steps of 
the house, sprang to the wheel, and was off at a 
fast pace. Willie climbed cautiously back to 
headquarters. 

“ Did you get its number? ” asked his chief. 

“ No,” replied Willie. “ It was covered with 
dust. And I couldn’t tell what make of car it 
was. But I saw the driver and I am sure I have 
seen him before and the car, too.” 

“ That’s not unlikely,” said Captain Hardy, 
“ if he lives anywhere near here. We’ve been 
here several days now.” 

“ I’m sure I’ve seen that man somewhere,” 


WHERE MONEY TALKED 105 

said Willie. “ I wish I could remember where 
it was.” 

Another day passed and another, and still the 
little house on the cliff showed no signs of life. 
But one afternoon the monotonous watch came 
to a sudden end. Lew, in the attic gable, espied 
a fleet of transports coming down the bay. 
Instantly he spread the alarm. 

“You boys slip down to the pines,” said Cap¬ 
tain Hardy to Willie and Roy. “ If any one 
comes out of the house trail him. Now we’ll find 
out whether this spy—if he be a spy—telephones 
his news or sends it out by messenger. The 
Chief has had the telephone wires tapped and is 
receiving a record of all conversations.” 

Lew continued his watch aloft, Henry sat tense 
at the wireless, waiting to catch any possible mes¬ 
sage, and Roy and Willie scrambled cautiously 
down to their favorite observation post in the 
pines. On came the transports, riding the waves 
in a stately column; yet the little house seemed 
as lifeless as ever. 

“ Watch close,” whispered Willie. “ Don’t 
let anything escape us.” 


106 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


On came the ships, nearer and nearer, throw¬ 
ing the white spray away from their bows. They 
passed Robbin’s Reef light. They drew close to 
the entrance to the Narrows. Breathlessly the 
boys awaited their nearer approach. The trans¬ 
ports reached the narrowest part of the passage 
and still there was no sign of life in the little 
house. Willie gave a sigh of disappointment and 
started to speak; but before he could utter a 
word there was a movement in the window be¬ 
fore them and the man they had previously seen 
appeared for a moment sweeping the Narrows 
with his glasses. Then he disappeared from 
sight. 

“It’s him!” exclaimed Willie, forgetting his 
grammar in his excitement. “ Now he’s either 
telephoning his message or getting it ready for a 
messenger. We’ll soon know.” 

They had not long to wait. A figure was seen 
coming up the highway. 

“ It’s only the grocer’s boy,” said Willie in dis¬ 
appointment. “ This is the time he usually 
comes.” 

“ I wonder if we aren’t on a wild-goose chase,” 


WHERE MONEY TALKED 


107 


said Roy. “ Maybe the man in that house isn’t 
any spy at all. I begin to think so.” 

“ I don’t,” maintained Willie. “ I just know 
he’s a spy, but how he sends his messages I can’t 
figure out.” 

Just then the grocer’s boy came out of the 
house. “ There’s no use trailing him,” said Roy. 
“ We already know who he is. While we’re fol¬ 
lowing him the messenger might come—if there 
is one.” 

“ Captain Hardy said we should follow any 
one who left the house,” said Willie, “ so I sup¬ 
pose we’ll have to watch this errand boy. You 
go this time, Roy.” 

In a minute Roy had reached the higher thor¬ 
oughfare. He ran down the road at top speed 
and got to the grocery store before the loitering 
errand boy even came up into this higher road 
from the lower thoroughfare. But instead of 
entering the store, Roy turned the corner, retrac¬ 
ing his steps in time to enter the store half a 
minute before the errand boy got there. 

The grocer was behind the counter. “ Have 
you any crackers? ” asked Roy. 


108 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


The grocer took down a package of Uneeda 
biscuits. 

“ You don’t have any loose ones? ” asked Roy. 

“ No, these are all we keep.” 

“ Guess I’ll have to take ’em,” said Roy. 
“ Got any candy? ” 

“ In the case there,” was the answer. 

Roy walked over to the show-case and began to 
examine the stock. Just then the errand boy 
came in. 

“ Here’s the money for the sugar,” he said, 
handing the grocer a silver dollar. 

The grocer took the coin and carelessly 
dropped it into his pocket. 

Roy continued his inspection of the stock of 
sweetmeats. “ Give me five cents’ worth of 
gum-drops,” he said. 

The grocer began to weigh them out. A tall 
man with gauntlets and with motor goggles on 
his forehead came in. 

“ Hello, Fritz,” he said jovially. “ Got that 
sugar for me yet? ” 

“ Just sold my last ounce,” said the grocer. 
“ I haven’t been able to get a bit for three days.” 


WHERE MONEY TALKED 109 

“ Himmel!” said the customer. “ How much 
longer have I got to go without sugar in my 
coffee? ” 

He turned to go. 

“ Hello!” called the grocer. “Here’s that 
dollar I owe you.” 

The man turned back, and the grocer pulled 
the coin from his pocket and dropped it into the 
man’s gloved hand. 

“ Good luck to you,” he said, then finished 
weighing out the gum-drops for Roy, and 
dropped the nickel in his cash drawer. 

Slowly Roy retraced his steps. “ Well, what 
happened? ” asked Willie, as Roy rejoined him. 

“ Nothing,” said Roy in disgust. “ The errand 
boy came in and handed the grocer a dollar that 
he had collected for sugar. Pretty soon an auto¬ 
mobile driver came in to get some sugar and the 
grocer said he hadn’t any more, but he paid him 
a dollar he owed him.” 

Willie was silent, turning the matter over 
in his mind. “ Then what? ” he asked after a 
time. 

“ Nothing, except that I bought some candy 


110 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


and the grocer put the money in his cash drawer. 
Then I left.” 

“ Where else would he put it? ” asked Willie, 
abstractedly, as he tried to read some mean¬ 
ing into the grocer’s apparently meaningless 
acts. 

“ Well,” said Roy, “ he didn’t put the dollar 
the errand boy gave him into the drawer. He 
dropped that into his pocket.” 

“ Why, that’s exactly what happened when I 
was in there the other day,” said Willie in sur¬ 
prise. 

The daylight waned. Dusk came on. It 
grew too dark to see the spy’s house from the 
pines. It was past time to relieve Henry at the 
wireless. The two scouts climbed to their own 
house for orders. As they came up the stairs 
they heard the voice of Henry. 

“ Come quick,” he called. “ I’ve got another 
message.” 

Everybody rushed to Henry’s side. Captain 
Hardy seized the sheet of paper from Henry’s 
hand, and counted the long string of letters 
written on it. Quickly he rearranged them in 


WHERE MONEY TALKED 111 

four equal lines. Then slowly he read the cipher. 
“ Another transport fleet assembling. First five 
boats went to sea this afternoon.” 

“ Where did this message come from? ” he de¬ 
manded, as he laid down the paper. 

“ From some point down the Jersey coast,” 
said Henry, “ and probably not more than twenty 
miles away.” 

A long silence followed. “ We’re simply up 
against it,” said Lew dejectedly. “We don’t 
get anywhere.” 

Suddenly Willie jumped to his feet with a cry. 
“ I’ve got it! I’ve got it! ” he almost shouted. 
“ Why didn’t I see it before? ” 

“ Got what? ” asked Roy, astonished. 

Willie paid no attention to his question. 
“ What sort of a looking man was that motor¬ 
ist? ” he cried. 

“ A tall fellow, with black hair and with a big 
scar on his cheek,” said the astonished Roy. 

“ I knew it,” cried Willie. “ I knew it! Now 
I know how the messages are carried. It’s as 
plain as can be.” 

His fellows clustered about him. “ What do 


112 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


you mean? ” said Captain Hardy eagerly. 
“ Explain.” 

“ Well,” said Willie, “ when I followed that 
grocer’s boy the other day, I saw him give the 
grocer a dollar which he said he had collected for 
sugar. The grocer put it in his pocket. But 
when I gave him money for candy he dropped it 
in his till. Just after I left the store and turned 
the corner a man drove up in a motor. I noticed 
him because he turned his car completely around 
and stopped at the curb. He got out and left 
his engine running. When I crossed the street 
to meet you, after you whistled, I dodged a 
motor-car. It was the same car, but I thought 
nothing of it.” He paused, as though collecting 
his thoughts. 

“ Go on,” said their leader eagerly. 

“ To-day,” resumed Willie, “ Roy followed 
that same grocer’s boy from the house on the 
cliff to the grocery store and saw him give the 
grocer a dollar, which he said he had collected 
for sugar. The grocer dropped the coin in his 
pocket, but he put Roy’s nickel in his drawer. A 
minute later an automobile driver came in. The 


WHERE MONEY TALKED 113 

grocer said he owed him a dollar and gave him 
the coin from his pocket. That driver was the 
same one I saw the other day.” 

“ How do you know? ” interrupted Captain 
Hardy. “ You didn’t see him to-day? ” 

“ But Roy saw him. He’s a tall man with 
black hair and with a scar on his left cheek. 
That’s the man I saw, and it’s the man who drove 
up to the house on the cliff the other day. I 
knew that I had seen him, but I couldn’t remem¬ 
ber just where.” For a moment he stood silent, 
fairly panting with excitement. 

“Well?” said Lew. “What about him? 
The grocer could owe him a dollar as well as 
anybody.” 

“ But he didn’t owe him a dollar,” cried Willie. 
“ Don’t you see? The spy in the house below 
gave that dollar to the errand boy. He gave it 
to the grocer. He gave it to the motor driver. 
It’s the same dollar. He didn’t put it in the till 
with the other coins. He kept it in his pocket 
separate. That automobile driver is the man 
who carried the messages to the wireless. The 
messages are on the dollars.” 


CHAPTER IX 


A FRESH START 


MAZED, the members of the little patrol 



looked at one another silently. 

“ How could they send a message on a dollar? ” 
demanded Lew at last. “ They’d have to en¬ 
grave it, and then they’d never dare to use the 
dollar again. Besides, it would be too danger¬ 
ous. If the message were on paper, the paper 
could be burned or chewed up and swallowed, and 
the evidence of crime destroyed. But they 
couldn’t erase the engraving on a dollar.” 

“ I don’t know how they do it,” said Willie, 
“ but I’m sure they write their messages on those 
dollars.” 

“ Willie is doubtless right,” said Captain 
Hardy. “We don’t know how they do it, but 
the evidence leads directly to the conclusion 
Willie has come to. The spy in the house below 


114 


A FRESH START 


115 


us writes his messages on dollars and sends them 
through this grocer’s boy and the motor-car 
driver to the various secret wireless plants the 
Germans evidently possess near New York. I 
think that is plain. And it indicates new lines of 
action for us. We must not only continue to 
listen in for messages and watch this spy’s nest, 
but we shall have to follow this motor-car driver 
and also learn the secret of the dollars.” 

“Hurrah!” cried Roy, his eyes shining. 
“ Now there’ll be something doing.” Then he 
struck a tragic attitude and declaimed, “ Little 
do the treacherous hawks in yonder nest realize 
that the eagles of the law are about to swoop 
down on them.” 

“ Some orator, Roy,” said Lew. “ If we’re 
eagles, we must have wings. Are mine sprout¬ 
ing yet? ” And he turned his back to Roy for 
the latter’s examination. 

When the laughter ceased, their leader went 
on, “You boys are to be congratulated for your 
discovery. You have accomplished a great deal. 
But what has been done is little compared with 
what remains to be done. And so far you have 


116 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


worked in safety. The work ahead may be very 
dangerous. The hidden wireless stations we are 
after are probably in lonely places. The men 
operating them are desperate fellows and will 
not hesitate even to commit murder. If one of 
you boys should follow this motor driver into a 
lonesome spot and then be caught, you might 
never return.” 

The smiles faded from the faces before him. 
But the grave looks that succeeded were not ex¬ 
pressions of fear. Rather they were looks of 
determination—the same set marks of grim pur¬ 
pose that Captain Hardy had seen on these same 
youthful faces when the wireless patrol was 
stalking the desperate dynamiters at the Elk City 
reservoir. 

Again it was Roy who brought back the smiles. 
“ If we have to follow that automobile driver,” 
he said, “ it’s a question of ‘ where do we go from 
here, boys? ’ ” 

“ Only the boy who does the following can 
answer that question,” answered Captain Hardy. 
“ But there are several matters that we can 
decide at once. I think that we’ve determined 


A FEESH STAET 


117 


pretty definitely that the man in the house be¬ 
low us-” 

“ In the hawk’s nest,” interrupted Roy. 

“ Well, the man in the hawk’s nest,” continued 
their leader, smiling, “ is a German spy, that he 
is there to report the movements of our trans¬ 
ports, and that he does it by means of messages 
sent out on silver dollars. Now we’ve got to get 
hold of one of those dollars. That might not be 
a difficult task in itself. We could hold up the 
grocer’s boy and take the dollar away from him, 
or we might get it away from him by trickery and 
substitute another dollar for the stolen one. We 
might even be able to pick the grocer’s pocket and 
give him a substitute coin. But neither plan 
would help us because the trick would soon be 
discovered and the spies would know that they 
are suspected. It wouldn’t do us any good to 
get their code if they knew we had it. They 
would simply use another. What we must do is 
to locate their agents, one after another, learn 
their codes and ciphers, and catch their messages 
in the air. When we have laid bare the entire 
scheme and learned who their agents are, then the 



118 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


secret service can grab the entire organization at 
once and end this treachery for good.” 

Captain Hardy paused and looked uneasily 
across the room, as though lost in thought. His 
companions were quiet as mice, each also busy 
with his own thoughts. 

“ It’s a long, hard task, boys,” said the captain, 
after a time, and he drew a deep breath, “ a long 
task and, from now on, a dangerous task. 
Whatever you do, boys, remember the Chief’s 
warning. Above all else, we must be careful not 
to alarm the men we are watching.” 

As Captain Hardy rose to get his hat he said, 
“ I don’t quite see how we are to follow this 
motor-car driver without being detected. So I 
am going over to Manhattan to see the agent the 
Chief has put in charge of this investigation. 
Perhaps I’ll have some interesting news for you 
when I return. Meantime, keep your eyes and 
ears open and be careful.” 

With renewed interest and determination the 
members of the wireless patrol returned to their 
posts. But though they listened faithfully at 
the wireless and uninterruptedly watched the 


A FRESH START 


119 


hawk’s nest on the cliff below them, no alarming 
sound came out of the air and no suggestive 
movement occurred within their vision. 

Their captain came back with a smile of satis¬ 
faction on his face. But the members of the 
wireless patrol were too well disciplined to ques¬ 
tion their leader. They knew that, as always 
before, he would give them the proper orders at 
the proper time; and that if they obeyed those 
orders faithfully and intelligently, success would 
follow. But Captain Hardy was different in 
many respects from other commanders, and his 
subordinates were not at all like ordinary privates 
in an army. There was no question as to their 
loyalty, discretion, or intelligence; and their 
leader believed he could attain the greatest suc¬ 
cess by taking them into his confidence. So 
presently he answered the question that each boy 
was longing to ask. 

From his pocket he produced detailed maps of 
all the neighboring country, so mounted on 
cheese-cloth, after being cut into squares, that 
they could be folded into small size without in¬ 
juring the maps themselves. Thus the bearer 


120 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

could always follow his route, whether he walked 
or rode, whether the air was calm or the wind 
blew fiercely, by carrying in his hand the neces¬ 
sary map folded in small compass. 

Now Captain Hardy spread out his maps full 
length on a table, and for half an hour the little 
group bent over them, heads close together, ex¬ 
amining the topography of the city’s environs as 
once they had studied the city itself. Marked 
to show altitudes, roads, byways, rivers, streams, 
marshes, woodlands, and even the buildings them¬ 
selves, these maps enabled the little group of 
scouts to see, through their imaginations, every 
foot of the country about New York. 

They visualized the great, flat, low-lying 
stretches of southern Long Island and New Jer¬ 
sey ; the abrupt bluffs of Long Island’s northern 
coast by the shore of the Sound; the various 
watery arms that encircle the American metropo¬ 
lis, permitting ships to sail in every direction; 
the majestic Hudson leading straight north 
through a wonderful country of rocks and hills, 
the impressive Palisades flanking its western 
bank with their towering perpendicular walls of 


A FRESH START 


121 


stone; and the rocky, rolling country hung west 
of them, interspersed with streams and swamps 
and woodlands and open fields and clustered 
villages. And when they had finished their study 
of the maps, they knew more about the topogra¬ 
phy of the country they had studied, its roads 
and paths and groves and elevations and other 
physical characteristics, than half the people who 
lived in the region. So they were prepared, if 
need be, to find their way about with little diffi¬ 
culty. And it was well they were so prepared. 
In the dangerous days to come they were to need 
all this knowledge. 

When they had studied the maps to their 
hearts’ content—and each of the four boys again 
and again examined them—Captain Hardy 
folded the maps and thrust them into a water¬ 
proof cover. They made a neat little packet like 
a thin book. 

“You will be interested to learn what the 
secret service has found out,” said Captain 
Hardy, as he stowed the maps in his pocket. 
“ When I left here, I reported immediately to 
the man in charge of this particular investiga- 


122 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


tion. Our discovery seems to me so important 
that I ventured to ask why the secret service men 
didn’t take the case up themselves, as they would 
no doubt get along much faster than we possibly 
can. For it seems to me message sending ought 
to be stopped at once. The agent said that all 
this was true, but that the secret service was so 
crowded with work it had to take up the most 
important matters first.” 

“ Most important matters! ” cried Roy, in in¬ 
dignation. “ Doesn’t the secret service consider 
the guarding of our troops important ? ” 

“Yes, Roy. But whether the Germans know 
exactly when our ships leave or not, their sub¬ 
marines will be waiting for them and our des¬ 
troyers will always be guarding the transports. 
But here in New York German spies are trying 
to create riots, to blow up buildings, to burn 
factories. They destroyed almost a million 
bushels of wheat in one fire recently. So you 
see that the secret service first must watch the 
enemies that are trying to destroy our greatest 
city. Our secret service isn’t one-quarter as 
large as it should be. That is the fault of Con- 


A FRESH START 


123 


gress. But meantime it is doing wonderful work, 
and it is a great privilege to be able to assist in 
that work.” 

“ But what have they found out about this 
job?” demanded Roy. 

“ You’re like a hound on a keen scent, Roy,” 
said their leader. “ Nothing ever takes you 
away from your objective. Well, this is what 
they’ve found. It seems that they have been 
keeping a record of the grocer’s telephone mes¬ 
sages, as well as those from the ‘ hawk’s nest ’ 
down below. Every time transports sail, some 
one in Hoboken calls up this grocer and says, ‘ I 
have some sugar on the way. Do you want 
any?’ And the grocer replies, ‘Yes. How 
many barrels can you let me have? ’ And the 
man in Hoboken gives the number. That num¬ 
ber corresponds with the number of transports 
about to sail. So you see how the grocer knows 
when to send his boy for the wireless messages. 
But before he sends him, he always telephones to 
the ‘ hawk’s nest ’ and says, ‘ I have some sugar 
coming and can let you have five pounds to-day. 
Do you want it? ’ And the number of pounds 


124 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


he offers is the same as the number of ships that 
are to sail. So the spy below us knows what to 
look for. And I suppose the man in Hoboken 
also telephones the automobile driver when to 
come for the dollars.” 

“ Who is this man in Hoboken that does the 
telephoning? ” demanded Roy, when Captain 
Hardy had done speaking. 

“Ah! That they don’t know. He has al¬ 
ways called up from a different place and has 
gotten away before the secret service could spot 
him. But the agent assures me that they’ll have 
him soon. He always telephones from a station 
close to the piers where the transports load. The 
next time he calls for the grocer, the telephone 
operator is going to delay him while she notifies 
a secret service agent posted near by with a 
motor-cycle. So they’ll spot him and trail him. 

“ And that reminds me,” continued Captain 
Hardy, after a pause, “ that we’re to do a little 
motor-cycle work ourselves, and that Henry has 
been selected for the job because he is familiar 
with motor-cycles.” 

Henry’s eyes lighted with pleasure. Not only 


A FRESH START 


125 


was he the oldest boy in the wireless patrol, and 
Captain Hardy’s first lieutenant, but he was one 
of those natural mechanics who seem to know 
instinctively how to handle tools and make things. 
Indeed he had constructed his own wireless out¬ 
fit and shown his fellows how to make theirs; and 
he could repair a motor-cycle almost as skilfully 
as a garage man. So it was natural that he 
should be selected for this task. 

But there was still another reason why his 
captain had chosen him for the work he had in 
mind. Though not so quick or clever as Roy, 
Henry was a keen observer and close reasoner. 
Moreover, he was entirely dependable, was very 
discreet, and being the largest boy in the party, 
was best fitted to take care of himself if he got 
into trouble. 

“We are going to trail this automobile driver 
with a motor-cycle, as you have probably 
guessed,” explained Captain Hardy to the little 
group of scouts. “ And Henry is to do the 
trailing. Come, Henry. We’ll go take a look 
at your machine. The secret service people said 
that it would be here in half an hour.” 


126 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


“ Where? In this house? ” asked Roy eagerly. 

“No, not here, but at a house around the cor¬ 
ner from the grocer’s. It will always be in readi¬ 
ness for instant use.” 

As Henry put on his hat and followed his 
leader, the other scouts looked at him somewhat 
enviously. “ Remember,” said their leader, 
turning about, “ each one of you has his work to 
do, just as Henry has. See that you do it.” 

At once the boys returned to their posts, while 
Henry and his captain passed out of the house 
and went down the street. Instead of going 
directly to their destination, the two made their 
way by a roundabout route and kept a sharp 
lookout lest they should meet the grocer or his 
boy. But they passed almost no one and came 
soon to a little white house, not far from the 
grocer’s store, that was set back in a yard behind 
a high hedge. Connected with the house was a 
small garage, built so as to resemble an extension 
of the dwelling. 

A keen-eyed woman answered their knock at 
the door and looked at them questioningly. 

“ We are the sugar refiners sent by the Federal 


A FRESH START 


127 


Sugar Company,” said Captain Hardy, repeat¬ 
ing the words given him by the secret service 
agent. 

“ I’ve been looking for you,” replied the 
woman. “ Come in.” And she led them at once 
through the house to the garage. 

Henry was about to ask Captain Hardy what 
he meant by saying that they were sugar refiners, 
but when he saw the motor-cycle that awaited 
him he forgot his question and gave a sharp cry 
of exultation. It was a beautiful machine, with 
tires so strong and thick they were practically 
puncture proof and were evidently equal to any 
demand that was likely to be made upon them. 
Evidently the engine was one of great power. 
The frame of the machine was a dark gray; and 
Henry instantly noted the fact that there was an 
almost utter absence of nickel about the motor¬ 
cycle. The spokes, handle-bars, and trimmings 
were all enameled black. The headlight was a 
powerful electric one, with a black cap over the 
lens. With great interest Henry examined the 
spark- and gasoline-controls, the motor itself, 
and finally the muffler, which was of the most 


128 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

improved variety. He looked in the gasoline- 
tank and found it full. The oil-tank was 
brimming. Every moving part had been care¬ 
fully greased and cleaned. 

“What’s this?” cried Henry, of a sudden, 
noting what seemed to be an extra and unneces¬ 
sary piece of framework. 

“ Take it out and see,” said Captain Hardy, 
with a smile. 

Carefully Henry examined the fastenings, to 
see how the extra tubing was adjusted. Then 
he drew it forth. 

“ A metal cane,” he said, puzzled. “ What is 
it? What is it for? ” 

Captain Hardy explained. Then he picked 
up a small electric torch, some well insulated 
wires that lay coiled on a near-by chair, and some¬ 
thing that looked like a giant fountain pen. He 
handed these articles to Henry, and repeated 
what the secret service man had told him as to 
their use. 

“ Put them in your pocket and be very care¬ 
ful that you do not lose them,” directed Captain 
Hardy. “ Carry them with you so that you can 


A FRESH START 


129 


run to your motor-cycle at a second’s notice. 
Now replace that cane on the machine.” 

Henry slid the cane back and fastened it in 
place. It was gray, like the car, and seemed to 
be a part of it. Then Captain Hardy fastened 
the little map case above the gasoline-tank in 
such a way that Henry could pluck out a map as 
he rode. 

“ Now,” he said, “ there is nothing to do but 
wait until the automobile driver comes for an¬ 
other dollar. Then you must follow him wher¬ 
ever he goes. You must watch every movement 
he makes. But you must not let him see you. 
It’s a hard thing to ask of you, Henry, for every¬ 
thing hinges upon your success.” 

A look of determination flashed in Henry’s 
eyes. “ I’ll do my best,” he said simply. 

“ I know you will,” rejoined his leader. Then 
he added, with a smile, “ Now we’ll go back to 
the eagle’s nest and wait for the hawk to appear.” 


CHAPTER X 

THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 

T^V AY followed day but that bird of prey did 
not appear. “ A watched pot never boils,” 
said Henry at last, trying to conquer his im¬ 
patience; and he turned his mind from the task 
of following the automobile driver to the even 
more difficult task of securing one of the dollars. 
For sooner or later the wireless patrol would 
have to procure one of these mysterious coins. 
But Henry could see no way to accomplish that 
end without alarming the quarry. Day after 
day the little patrol discussed the question. It 
was useless to think of securing a coin from the 
man on the cliff, from the grocer’s boy, or from 
the grocer himself; for none of the three had 
possession of the coins very long after they were 
marked. And what became of the coins after 
they left the grocer’s hands could as yet be only 
guessed at. 


130 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 131 

Again and again, as the days passed, the mem¬ 
bers of the wireless patrol discussed the secret of 
the dollars, but nowhere could they find even the 
suggestion of a solution. Slowly time dragged 
on. Day followed day. The watch grew 
monotonous and tiresome. There were no signs 
of hostile activity in the hawk’s nest and the 
secret service had no suspicious telephone con¬ 
versations to report. It required all their resolu¬ 
tion to keep the young scouts at their task of 
listening in. They even began to think that they 
had been detected and that the activities of the 
spy in the hawk’s nest were ended. 

Then, one afternoon, galvanizing them to 
sudden action, came a cryptic message from the 
secret service, announcing that the Federal Sugar 
Company could use experienced refiners at once. 
Henry took the message, and recalling what 
Captain Hardy had told the woman when they 
went to see the motor-cycle, at once guessed its 
meaning. He ran to Captain Hardy and re¬ 
peated it. 

“ You guessed rightly,” said Captain Hardy. 
“ Hereafter we, too, have to use code messages, 


132 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


and we just carried out the spy idea about sugar. 
This message is to warn us that transports are 
sailing. Go to your stations, boys.” 

Lew flew back to the wireless. Roy and 
Willie hustled down to the pine grove. Henry, 
his heart beating fast, hurried away to his motor¬ 
cycle station. 

For a long, long time nothing happened. 
Then a line of transports came into view. Pres¬ 
ently the spy appeared at his window, sweeping 
the channel with his powerful glasses. For 
several moments he studied the passing ships 
carefully, then withdrew from the window and 
was lost to sight. In a very few moments the 
scouts saw the grocer’s boy, with his basket and 
a few small packages, enter the house, then hurry 
away. Roy trailed him directly to the grocery 
store, but did not enter. 

Henry, meantime, impatient, like Paul 
Revere, “ to mount and ride,” stood peering out 
of a tiny window of the garage, awaiting the 
expected motor-car. In his eagerness minutes 
seemed like hours. As time passed and no motor¬ 
car came, he began to believe that none would 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 


133 


come, that the spies had learned of the trap set 
for them, and that they had discontinued their 
work or devised some new plan of operation. So 
impatient did Henry become that he could hardly 
refrain from running into the street to see if any 
motor-cars were approaching. At last his 
anxiety was relieved. He heard the regular 
beating of a motor climbing the hill. Then as 
he glued his eye to the tiny window the familiar 
car, a powerful roadster, with its top raised, 
rolled by. Again Henry tried to catch the num¬ 
ber and failed. Then he knew that the dust- 
covered license number was not dust covered by 
accident. Quickly he noted the treads of the 
tires, and the shape of the wheel hubs, axles, and 
springs, so that he could identify the car. Then 
it passed from his sight. 

And now his anxiety suddenly grew a hun¬ 
dredfold. Always before, the car had returned 
the way it came. Suppose that this time it 
should go back by another route and he should 
miss it. He could not endure the thought. 
Quickly he opened the door and peered 
forth. The driver was just turning his car, 


134 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


as he had always done before. The matter 
was settled. He would pass Henry’s hiding 
place on his return. Quickly Henry shut the 
door and waited with what patience he could 
command. 

For what seemed like an hour he waited. His 
pulse beat fast with excitement. He could 
hardly compel himself to stand quietly by his 
window and wait. The old fear that the motorist 
had gone away by some other route returned and 
began to torture him. He wanted to run out 
into the street and assure himself that the car 
was still in sight. And then, when it seemed he 
could endure the suspense not a second longer, 
he heard the purring of a motor, and the car he 
was waiting for slid quietly by and began to 
descend the hill toward the ferry. 

At once a new fear sprang up in Henry’s 
heart. Suppose the motor-cycle wouldn’t go. 
Suppose he should be so slow as to miss the 
ferry-boat. Desperately he flung open the door 
and trundled his motor-cycle out to the street. 
The roadster was only a block ahead of him. 
Speedily Henry pushed the cycle along the road. 


THE PUKSUIT IN THE DAKK 


135 


The motor began to bark and Henry leaped to 
the saddle. In another instant he was speeding 
after the roadster and was already so near it that 
he had to jam on his brake to avoid coming up 
to it. Near the ferry there was more traffic and 
Henry felt relieved. He dropped back a little 
distance and was almost completely hidden from 
the roadster by the carts and cars between them. 
So they proceeded to the ferry, the suspected 
driver bringing his roadster to a halt near the 
front of the ferry-boat just as Henry, following 
a string of wagons and carts, reached the other 
end of the craft. Then the whistle blew and the 
boat pulled out into the Bay. 

But Henry had now no eyes for the sights in 
the harbor that had formerly so fascinated him. 
His entire attention was centred on the roadster. 
The driver of the roadster remained in his seat, 
calmly looking out over the Bay. Henry stood 
his machine against a post and sought a position 
near by where he was sheltered from the spy’s 
observation by a huge coal truck, but where he 
could himself distinctly see the roadster by peer¬ 
ing through the spokes of the truck wheels. 


136 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Again he made a mental inventory of the dis¬ 
tinguishing features of the car he was following. 
And before the ferry-boat reached Manhattan he 
could have passed a perfect examination as to the 
appearance of the roadster. 

It was already dusk when the boat slid into its 
slip, and the heavy clouds overhead gave promise 
of a dark night. Henry was thankful. Up 
Broadway he followed the roadster at a safe dis¬ 
tance, then up Park Row, and so to the Brooklyn 
Bridge. Across this magic structure, one hun¬ 
dred and fifty feet above the surface of the water, 
Henry continued to follow the roadster. The 
great buildings, piled skyward in huge masses, 
were twinkling with a million lights. Boats were 
coming and going on the stream below. Electric 
cars followed one another across the bridge in 
endless procession. Elevated railway trains 
thundered past unceasingly. Up-stream shone 
the fairy lights of the other bridges that span the 
East River. The Navy Yard lay in full view. 
But the scene that at other times Henry would 
have found entrancing, now he scarcely noticed. 
He had eyes for one thing only—the rolling 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 


137 


motor-car ahead of him and the red eye that now 
glowed at its rear. 

He turned on his light and at a safe distance 
followed the roadster, which was heading due 
east. They passed the business portions of 
Brooklyn. They left Prospect Park behind 
them. They traversed a region of apartment- 
houses. Then came less thickly settled districts, 
with block after block of private residences, each 
in its own little yard. And so they proceeded to 
the very outskirts of the city, where houses gave 
place to vacant lots and vacant lots were suc¬ 
ceeded by open fields. Darkness had come. 
Traffic had grown less and less. Now there were 
no sheltering vehicles between himself and the 
roadster. A great fear of discovery sprang up 
in Henry’s heart. He switched off his light, 
risking arrest, and rode on in the darkness. 
Occasionally he passed under a lone street lamp. 
And now he understood why his machine was 
enameled black instead of being nickel finished. 
It gave back no answering gleam when beams of 
light fell upon it. It was made for just the 
secret sort of work it was doing now. For, with 


138 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


his motor completely muffled, his lamp extin¬ 
guished, Henry was now riding through the night 
like a dark shadow. 

Long before this, Henry had slipped the 
proper map from its case and had followed 
his route as far as he was able to see. Though 
his eyes could no longer pierce the darkness, 
Henry knew that he was passing through a 
lonely, undeveloped section of land. Dimly 
he glimpsed tiny bits of woodland here and 
there. The lonely lights Henry occasionally 
saw were the lamps in isolated farmhouses. 
He could no longer tell exactly where he was, 
though he knew the road he was following. But 
he had watched his speedometer closely and he 
knew he was traveling about twenty miles an 
hour. He was keeping pace with the motor-car, 
but riding several hundred yards behind it. So 
they continued for a long time. 

Suddenly the motor-car swung round a curve 
and vanished from sight. Henry knew the car 
had rounded a curve because he saw the lights 
swing. A minute later as he was about to reach 
the curve himself, he heard the rapid beating of 


THE PUKSUIT IN THE DAEK 


139 


hoofs and a team of horses came tearing round 
the bend and charged straight at him. Evidently 
the driver had lost control of them and it flashed 
into Henry’s mind that they had been frightened 
by the roadster ahead. But he had no time to 
think of anything. The frantic animals bore 
down on him like an express-train. Quick as 
thought Henry turned sharply to the right and 
threw on his power. The horses were almost 
upon him. The driver glimpsed him, cursed him 
savagely for having no light, and gave a power¬ 
ful heave on the reins. The horses swerved in 
one direction as Henry shot in the other, missing 
them by less than a foot. Before he could 
straighten his machine again, it had left the road 
and was plunging over the rough surface of a 
field. 

Henry jammed his brake on so suddenly that 
it toppled him from the saddle, but neither he 
nor the machine was injured. He turned the 
motor-cycle about and headed for the road. And 
now his hair almost stood on end. In the dark¬ 
ness he could dimly see some great lumber piles, 
as large as houses. He had all but crashed into 


140 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


them at high speed. Now he understood why 
the roadster’s light had disappeared when the 
car turned the eurve. It had been hidden by 
these great lumber piles. Rapidly Henry ran 
baek to the road. He knew the motor-car would 
now be far ahead of him. He should have to 
hasten to overtake it. He ran along the high¬ 
way, pushing his machine, and leaped to the 
saddle when the engine began to explode regu¬ 
larly. Then he turned the curve and peered 
ahead into the darkness. The road seemed to lie 
straight before him, but the motor-car had utterly 
vanished. 

For a moment Henry rode on, almost be¬ 
wildered. Then he looked rapidly about him. 
No farmhouse was in sight to which the motor¬ 
car might have gone. No light gleamed any¬ 
where. But he could dimly see trees here and 
there. And he made out a wooden fence lining 
the left side of the road. 

“ Lucky I didn’t shoot in that direction when 
I met that team,” muttered Henry. “ I’d have 
gone clear through that fence.” He dismounted, 
set his machine up, and took out his pocket torch. 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 


141 


Holding it close to the road, he began to examine 
the highway. “ There are the marks of his rear 
tires,” he muttered. 

And thankful indeed was the puzzled scout 
that he had learned so well at Camp Brady to 
observe carefully. He mounted his wheel and 
rode a few hundred yards further. Then he ex¬ 
amined the road again. He found the tracks he 
was searching for. He rode on and dismount¬ 
ing, found in two places the telltale marks. But 
the third time he examined the highway there 
were no marks of the roadster’s tires visible. 

“ He left the road between this point and the 
last stop,” murmured Henry. 

He went back a hundred feet and searched. 
There were no tire marks. Another hundred 
feet showed no prints in the dust. But the third 
hundred revealed the wheel marks. “ Ah! ” said 
Henry, “ he turned off close by.” 

He set his wheel against the fence and went 
forward, following the prints with his light, which 
he shaded carefully and held close to the road. 
Within fifty feet the marks turned straight off to 
the left. The car had passed from the highway 


142 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


through a gap in the fence, into an open field. 
What the field was like Henry could only con¬ 
jecture. He dared not flash his light around 
to see. 

He ran back and got his machine, then fol¬ 
lowed the wheel prints into the field. They did 
not show readily on the grassy surface, and soon 
he had lost them altogether. At first a sense of 
fear clutched at his heart. He recalled his 
leader’s words as to the dangerous nature of this 
duty. Here he was in exactly the lonely situa¬ 
tion his captain had foreseen, by himself, and 
with no means of defense. The enemy he was 
trailing had disappeared. He might be a mile 
distant or he might be waiting for his pursuer, 
behind the nearest tree. Henry shivered with 
fear and stood irresolute. But the feeling 
passed when he realized that he had lost the trail, 
that his quarry had escaped him, that he had 
failed his captain. A wave of remorse swept 
over him. The sense of fear left him entirely, 
and he bent all his energies to the task of finding 
the motor-car. He hid his wheel in a thicket 
that he might work faster, pausing only to 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 143 

snatch from it the metal cane fastened to the 
frame. 

Cautiously he glided forward, crouching as he 
moved, and taking advantage of every rock and 
bush he could see to screen himself. He held his 
breath and listened. Now he crept forward a 
foot at a time. Now he advanced swiftly for 
yards. He worked his way to the right and the 
left. But nowhere could he see what he was 
searching for, and no betraying sound came out 
of the thick blackness. 

“ It’s no use,” he said to himself bitterly, after 
he had searched for a quarter of an hour. “ I 
have lost him, and if I am not careful I’ll lose his 
message as well.” 

Near by he could dimly discern a tall stump. 
He ran over to it and on it laid his map, a pencil, 
his electric torch, his knife, the wires that he had 
been carrying in his pocket, and the giant foun¬ 
tain pen. Grasping the tip of his cane he gave 
a sharp tug and an inner lining slid outward. 
From this he drew out a third length, and from 
that a fourth. His metal cane was in reality an 
extension rod, not unlike a telescoping fishing- 




144 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


rod. It was fully ten feet long. In its curved 
handle was a small opening, like a keyhole. Into 
this Henry jammed the bayonet connection that 
terminated one of the wires. The other end of 
the wire he thrust into a like opening in the side 
of his big fountain pen. Into the opposite side 
of his pen he fastened one end of his second wire, 
attaching the other end of this wire to his knife, 
which he thrust deep into the earth. Then, rais¬ 
ing the extended cane aloft with his left hand, he 
put the point of his fountain pen to his right ear 
and listened. The mysterious articles that the 
secret service had supplied constituted a com¬ 
plete wireless receiving set. He could catch any 
message sent from a point within six or eight 
miles. 

He was not a moment too soon. Hardly had 
he gotten the fountain pen adjusted before there 
came a crackling in his ear. He rested his cane, 
upright, against the stump, and began to tune 
his instrument by sliding the cap of the fountain 
pen in and out. In a second he had tuned it 
perfectly. The sounds came to him with start¬ 
ling clearness. 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 


145 


“ He's near at hand," muttered Henry. 

He seized his pencil and wrote down on his 
map the letters that were sounding in his ear. 
Then with frantic haste he disconnected his in¬ 
strument, telescoped his extension cane, and 
gathered up the different articles and thrust them 
into his pockets. As rapidly as he could pick his 
way, he went back to his hidden machine. He 
fastened the metal cane in place, and got every¬ 
thing ready for a quick start. 

Suddenly a faint purring noise came to his 
ears. “Ah!" muttered Henry, “he’s started 
his motor. He’s off in that direction. What 
shall I do? ’’ 

His first impulse was to run at speed toward 
the purring motor, and to try to locate exactly 
the position of the hidden wireless station. Eut 
discretion showed him that was not wise. The 
spy might turn his lights on at any moment and 
Henry would be caught. Then everything was 
lost. 

“ I must make sure I can find the place in 
the daytime," muttered Henry. Carefully he 
gauged the sound, deciding whence it came. 


146 


THE SECBET WIBELESS 


“ He’s right off there,” he said. And with his 
heel he made a long mark in the turf, pointing 
straight toward the sound. 

Almost before he finished, the sound grew 
louder and Henry knew the car was advancing. 
He shrank back into the thicket, dragging his 
motor-cycle with him. An instant later the 
roadster rolled softly past, not more than fifty 
feet distant. In a moment more the car had 
reached the fence and turned into the highway. 
Its lights suddenly flashed out and the car went 
bowling down the road toward Brooklyn. 

Henry leaped from the thicket and ran toward 
the highway, pushing his motor-cycle before him. 
He paused at the opening in the fence, and with 
his knife smoothed a space on one of the posts 
and marked a cross on it with his pencil. Then 
he ran to the highway, started his motor, and 
was soon flying down the road in pursuit of the 
roadster. And as he had come, so he returned, 
with lights out, until Brooklyn was reached and 
the streets were once more alive with traffic. 

At a safe distance he followed the unsuspect¬ 
ing motorist and saw him turn into a private 


THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK 


147 


yard in Flatbush. Instantly Henry dismounted, 
thrust his wheel behind a hedge that fenced a 
private residence, and gained a position where 
he could watch the spy’s house. He saw the spy 
close and lock his garage and enter the house. 
Stealthily Henry approached and noted the 
house number. At the corner he got the name of 
the street. Then he hurried back to his hidden 
motor-cycle and was soon flying back to his com¬ 
rades at the eagle’s nest. 


CHAPTER XI 

AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH 

TT was characteristic of Henry that he should 
-*• tell the worst about himself first. In his own 
manly way he was willing to accept the blame for 
his failure. 

“ He got away from me,” he began, so 
chagrined that he could hardly repress the tears. 
“ I didn’t find the hidden wireless and I have 
failed in my task.” 

Before his captain he stood with downcast eyes 
and tortured heart. His experience at Camp 
Brady had taught him that the wireless patrol 
expected every member to do his duty—and he 
had failed. 

Captain Hardy looked at his lieutenant for a 
moment without answering. He had not the 

slightest idea of what had occurred, but he recog- 
148 


AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH 


149 


nized instantly the manliness of Henry’s report. 
The latter was offering no excuses, making no 
attempt to shield himself from the consequences 
of his failure. 

“ Suppose you tell us just what happened,” 
said the leader gently, “ and we can judge better 
how badly you have failed.” 

Gratefully Henry looked up. He had not 
expected a scolding. That was not Captain 
Hardy’s way of disciplining his boys. But he 
had felt sure his leader would show how deeply 
he was disappointed, for Captain Hardy was 
terribly in earnest in this quest for spies. So 
once again Henry’s heart went out to his captain. 
Rapidly he related what had befallen him. As 
he proceeded with his story, his leader’s face lost 
its look of grave concern, his eyes began to flash 
with interest, his cheeks to burn with eager¬ 
ness. When Henry’s narrative had reached the 
point where the motor-car had disappeared in the 
field and Henry was searching for it, Captain 
Hardy held up his hand. 

“ Stop a moment,” he interrupted. “ You 
were in no wise to blame for what happened, and 


150 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

instead of being condemned for failure you are 
to be commended for your success. Many a boy 
would never have found where that car went. 
And even though you did not learn exactly where 
the car was, you have located the field and you 
may be sure that driver never went very far in a 
field. We shall find the place easily enough. 
Go on.” 

Henry looked at his leader gratefully and a 
happy light came into his eyes. “ Do you really 
think I didn’t fail ? ” he asked eagerly. 

“ Assuredly,” insisted Captain Hardy. “ I 
think that you have learned enough to enable us 
to locate this hidden station. Go on.” 

Henry proceeded with the story of his search 
in the dark, of his uncertainty as to what he 
should do, of his fear of missing the message as 
well as the car, and of how he had intercepted 
that message, marked the fence post, and located 
the home of the automobile driver. 

“ Why, Henry,” cried Captain Hardy, when 
the recital was ended, “ whatever put it into your 
head that you had failed? You have done well— 
exceedingly well.” 


AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEAECH 151 

“ But I didn’t find the hidden station, and you 
said that was so important.” 

“ That is a mere detail, Henry. We shall find 
it easily enough. We have our experience at 
Elk City to direct us.” 

“ That’s just why I felt so bad,” said Henry. 
“ If these Germans have concealed their wireless 
plant as skilfully as the dynamiters did at Elk 
City, we may never find where it is.” 

“ We’ll try before we give up hope,” said the 
captain smiling. “ And even if we never find it, 
we now know something more important than the 
location of one of their several wireless plants. 
We know where another member of the gang 
lives. That is excellent, Henry, excellent! The 
Chief will be more than pleased. I know he is a 
great deal more concerned about this wireless 
situation than he permits us to think. The pub¬ 
lic is clamoring for protection for the troops and 
the Chief simply cannot accomplish one-fourth 
of what is demanded of him. If we uncover this 
gang for him, we shall do a very real service to 
America, boys.” 

“ We’ll do it,” cried Willie vehemently. 


152 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

“ We’ll do it. We’ll get ’em just as sure as we 
got the dynamiters.” 

“ I believe we shall,” smiled the captain. 
“ And if that’s the way you all feel about it, I 
know we shall. We’re closing in on them fast. 
To-morrow we’ll go out to that field Henry has 
marked and see what we can find in the daylight.” 

So it happened that the succeeding forenoon 
found the five members of the wireless patrol 
rolling rapidly toward the point of investigation, 
in a motor-car furnished by the secret service and 
driven by one of its agents. Henry sat beside 
the driver and pointed out the way, while the 
others crowded into the rear of the car. 

With his map on his knees Henry traced the 
way. Speedily they passed through the built-up 
portion of Brooklyn and came shortly to the 
sparsely settled district through which their road 
ran. Henry scanned the way with curious in¬ 
terest. He had been over the road but he knew 
nothing of what he had passed. Occasionally 
they whirled by a tree close to the road that 
Henry thought he had glimpsed in the darkness. 
So they flew forward until Henry, looking 


AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH 153 

eagerly ahead, cried out, “ There are the lumber 
piles.” 

The driver slowed his car almost to a walk and 
they looked in the dust for telltale marks. Few 
teams had passed since Henry’s adventure, and 
in the dust could still plainly be seen the marks 
of Henry’s wheel as he had turned sharply into 
the field, and the narrow tracks of the vehicle 
that had almost run him down. 

But Henry was more interested in marks of 
another sort. “ There! ” he cried suddenly. 
“ See those tracks? They’re the marks of the 
sj)y’s roadster.” And he pointed to parallel 
tread marks, one made by a chain tread tire and 
one by a diamond tread. 

They passed on. Not many hundred yards 
distant was an opening in the fence. “ That’s 
the place he turned off,” insisted Henry. “ See 
that light place where I shaved the post? ” 

But they did not turn into the field. Instead 
the motor-car continued steadily on its way. A 
half mile up the highway was a road-house known 
to the driver. 

“ It’s about eleven o’clock now,” said the secret 


154 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


service man. “ We’ll have luncheon at the road¬ 
house and in the meantime we can stroll around 
and hunt up this wireless plant. We’d attract 
too much attention if we drove directly into the 
field.” 

They stopped at the road-house, ordered 
luncheon, and said they would stroll about until 
noon. Then they wandered, apparently aim¬ 
lessly, about the place and into the fields. The 
country was nearly level, with slight depressions 
here and little hillocks there, and bits of wood¬ 
land all about. The road-house was the only 
structure in sight, and when they had passed be¬ 
yond a slight elevation, even this was hidden. 
Apparently there was not a soul in the neighbor¬ 
hood. They paused just inside a little grove and 
made sure that no one was following them from 
the road-house. Then they pushed rapidly on 
into the little thicket which Henry recognized as 
his hiding-place of the previous night. 

After a moment’s search, Henry found the 
mark he had made in the turf. “ The motor-car 
was in that direction,” he explained, pointing 
along his turf mark. 


AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH 


155 


His fellows looked in the direction of his out¬ 
stretched arm. At a distance of a quarter of a 
mile was a thick little grove. Henry was point¬ 
ing straight at the heart of it. 

The scouts had kept themselves well hidden in 
the thicket as Henry was finding his mark. If 
any one was in the wood, that person could not 
as yet see them. 

“ I have no doubt we shall find the secret sta¬ 
tion in that grove,” said Captain Hardy. “ I 
see several tall trees sticking up above the others 
that might conceal aerials. I doubt if any one 
is there now, but some one might be. So we shall 
have to approach carefully and in such a way that 
we can capture any one who might be within the 
grove. Suppose we advance on it from all four 
sides, as we did on the willow copse at the Elk 
City reservoir. Then if any one is within the 
grove we shall see him.” 

The leader gave each boy his orders and the 
advance began. Henry was to circle and enter 
the woods from the rear. Roy was to approach 
from one side and Willie from the other. Lew 
was to go in at the front. Captain Hardy and 


156 


THE SECEET WIKELESS 


the secret service man were to station themselves 
outside the wood so that they could see every 
point of its exterior and detect any one leaving it. 
Each glided away toward his post. 

At a given signal from Captain Hardy, the 
boys began to work their way silently from their 
posts into the grove. This was small in extent 
and such precautions seemed almost unnecessary. 
But after their desperate experience with the 
dynamiters, the members of the wireless patrol 
were taking no chances. They knew full well 
that discretion is the better part of valor. And 
they knew, in addition, that the success of their 
search might depend upon the caution with which 
they proceeded. So they went forward, when 
the captain’s signal rang out, like so many In¬ 
dians on the war-path, stalking a hated enemy. 

Indeed they were almost as invisible as Indians. 
Each had circled skilfully to his post. And now 
each crept forward silently, slipping from rock 
to bush, taking advantage of the slightest cover, 
and advancing so stealthily through the tall grass 
that even the two men on watch outside the grove 
could hardly tell where the scouts were moving. 


AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH 


157 


And any one inside the grove could not have de¬ 
tected them at all. 

The four scouts reached the four sides of the 
grove almost simultaneously. Each of the four 
crept round the trunk of a big tree and squatted 
down with the trunk at his back, to look and to 
listen. From side to side their eyes roved, ex¬ 
amining every tree and stump in sight. But 
they saw nothing on the ground or in the 
branches overhead to alarm them. There was no 
indication of human presence other than their 
own; and Willie was certain that the wood was 
deserted, for several small flocks of birds flew up 
in alarm as he penetrated the grove. Had other 
men been within the wood, he knew the birds 
would long ago have been frightened away. 

Slowly the four scouts worked their way to¬ 
ward the centre of the grove, gliding round the 
trunks of trees and stopping every few feet to 
look and listen. But they heard nothing, saw 
nothing, to indicate that any man was within the 
grove. Each one, as he advanced, scouted to 
right and left of his line of march, so that when 
the four met in the centre of the wood, they had 


158 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


covered every rod of ground within the grove. 
And they had found nobody. 

What was more, they had seen no signs of a 
wireless outfit. But, in view of their experience 
in searching for the dynamiters’ hidden wireless, 
this was not surprising. None of the scouts had 
expected to find the secret plant without a thor¬ 
ough search. As soon as Captain Hardy and 
the secret service man joined them, a systematic 
search of the wood was begun. 

There could not have been more than two hun¬ 
dred trees in the little grove. Satisfied that the 
place contained no enemy agents, Captain Hardy 
took his company to one end of the ground and 
began a careful examination of each tree. The 
six searchers strung out in a line across the grove, 
testing each tree as they advanced. They 
scanned the trunks and thumped them with clubs 
to make sure that they were not hollow. They 
peered at them from all sides, looking for holes 
and hollow limbs. With sticks they scratched 
away the leaves from about the bases of the trees, 
turning up the soil for several inches and testing 
it for hidden wires. All the trees seemed sound. 


AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEAECH 


159 


No hollow limbs were discovered. No suspicious 
marks were found in the earth about the tree 
trunks. The tall trees noted by Captain Hardy 
seemed never to have been touched by man. 
From tree to tree the search proceeded until every 
tree in the grove had been tested and the scouts 
were on the far edge of the wood. But no hidden 
wire, no secret instruments, no skilfully concealed 
aerials were found. 

Blankly the searchers looked at one another. 
“ It must be here,” said Henry. “ I am abso¬ 
lutely certain that the motor-car came from this 
direction and was about this distance from where 
I stood. And the signals were so loud and clear 
that I’m just sure they were sent from some spot 
close by.” 

“ Let us look for wheel tracks,” suggested 
Captain Hardy. “ If we can find where the car 
stopped, we shall know that the message was sent 
from some point near by. Search along the sides 
of the grove first.” 

The party divided, and three searchers ex¬ 
amined the ground along each side of the grove. 
Walking abreast and several feet distant from 


160 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


one another, they covered a broad strip of 
ground. Twice each party retraced its tracks 
but found nothing. 

“ Try another strip, farther away from the 
grove,” said Captain Hardy. 

Again the searchers lined up and went slowly 
forward on either side of the woods. Bending 
low, stepping slowly, sometimes kneeling to ex¬ 
amine a suspicious mark, they moved carefully 
on. The thick turf had taken no telltale im¬ 
print. 

“ I fear it’s useless,” sighed the leader. 

“ Let’s try again,” pleaded Willie. “ The car 
was here. We know that. And somewhere it 
was bound to make a mark. It might have gone 
beyond the grove.” 

They made another search, this time extending 
their examination to the land beyond the wood. 
Suddenly Roy gave a cry. “ Here it is,” he 
called. 

The others ran to him. And there, sure 
enough, in a little bare spot between two hum¬ 
mocks of grass, was the plain imprint of a 
diamond tread. Instantly Roy and Willie 


AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH 161 

dropped to their knees and began to feel along 
the line of the tire mark. 

Henry and Lew, meantime, searched to right 
and left of them. “ Here’s his other wheel 
track,” suddenly cried Lew, and there, sure 
enough, was a distinct impression of a chain 
tread tire. 

They proceeded in the direction in which the 
car had been moving. “ Here’s where he 
turned,” cried Henry. 

The turf before him was torn and ragged. 
Distinctly they could see the impression made 
by the driving wheels as they gripped the ground 
in starting. 

“ Then here is where he stood,” said Captain 
Hardy. “ It is immediately behind the wood. 
Your mark pointed straight enough, Henry, but 
your man was farther away than you thought. 
Probably he ran behind this grove to make doubly 
sure he would not be seen from the highway. 
The hidden station must be in this end of the 
grove. We’ll search again.” 

Once more they plunged into the wood. 
Again they examined every tree. Up one trunk 


162 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


after another shinned Roy and Lew, who were 
bom climbers. But hunt as they would, search 
as they might, they found nothing to indicate a 
secret wireless. At last, completely baffled, they 
gave up the search. 

“ It’s here,” insisted Captain Hardy. “ Our 
experience at the Elk City reservoir makes me 
sure of that. They’re too clever for us. But 
we’ll get them yet. We’ll follow that roadster 
so closely next time that we can’t miss the secret. 
It’s too bad, boys, but don’t be discouraged. We 
have done much to come so close. Now we’ll go 
back to the road-house. It’s long past time for 
luncheon.” 


CHAPTER XII 


ANOTHER OBSTACLE 



TME wore on. Now that there was some- 


A thing definite to work on, the secret service 
began to take a more active part in the spy hunt. 

“ You have helped us greatly/’ said the Chief 
to Captain Hardy, one day. “ My men were so 
rushed with work that they simply could not take 
the time to go hunting round for clues. But 
now that the wireless patrol has furnished those 
clues, we shall be able to follow them up. But 
we want you to continue at work just the same. 
You can still help us.” 

But the members of the wireless patrol, and 
especially Henry, found small satisfaction in the 
Chief’s praise. They had not come to New York 
merely to furnish the secret service with clues. 
They had come to uncover the system by which 
spies were betraying the movements of our trans¬ 
ports. At the Elk City reservoir they had suc- 


163 


164 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


ceeded where trained men had failed; and they 
meant to succeed here also. They felt that the 
Chief was patting them on the head, as it were, 
and telling them that they were good little boys. 
They meant to show him they were the equals of 
his own men, even if the Chief’s words, instead 
of pleasing them, stimulated them to half angry 
activity. 

“ He needn’t think that just because we’re 
boys and come from the country we aren’t any 
good,” argued Roy. “ That’s the way every¬ 
body talks about boys. That’s the way they 
talked about us at Elk City until we caught the 
dynamiters and showed them what we could do. 
We’ll show Uncle Sam’s men, too. I don’t care 
if they are famous detectives. We’ll get these 
fellows ourselves. We’re not going to have the 
secret service step in now and take all the credit.” 

But it was one thing to talk so confidently and 
quite another to accomplish the end they were 
striving for. They had not yet discovered a 
single one of the hidden wireless stations, and the 
secret of the dollar was still a secret. As far as 
the members of the wireless patrol could see, it 


ANOTHER OBSTACLE 


165 


was likely to remain a secret. How they could 
secure one of the dollars without being detected, 
they did not know; and how they were to read the 
message, even if they did get the dollar, was more 
than they could see; for by this time they had 
dropped the idea that the messages were engraved 
on the coins. More and more those dollars ap¬ 
peared a great and insuperable obstacle. 

“ Couldn’t we manage to see the spy when he 
marks those dollars?” asked Roy. “Is there 
any way that we could get into his house and 
hide, so as to watch him? ” 

“You mustn’t think of trying,” said Captain 
Hardy decisively. “ But possibly you could find 
a new place to watch from that would enable you 
to see him better. These field-glasses of mine 
are very powerful, and if you can find the proper 
view-point, you can see him well, even from a 
distance.” 

Without a word Roy grabbed his hat and 
darted out of the house. A second later he was 
slipping through the thicket on the sloping hill¬ 
side. Cautiously he crawled from one point to 
another. The only station that gave any promise 


166 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


of success was the pine grove originally selected. 
The tree from which they had been watching the 
spy’s house was a giant pine that towered above 
every other tree in the grove. But the scouts 
had never dared to ascend beyond the protecting 
foliage of the other trees, lest they be detected. 
So they had been looking upward at an angle, as 
they watched the spy’s house. Roy now saw that 
if he were to climb high up in the big pine, he 
would be on a level with the spy’s windows, and 
could doubtless see clearly into the house. The 
difficulty would be to make the climb without 
being detected. 

Roy made his way back to headquarters and 
reported on his observations. “ I didn’t go up,” 
he said, “ for fear he would see me.” 

“ You were wise,” replied Captain Hardy. 
“We must devise some plan by which you can 
get up the tree unnoticed.” 

“ Camouflage! ” said Willie suddenly. “ Fix 
one of us up like a pine tree. Then he won’t 
see us.” 

“ Just the idea,” said Lew laughing. 

“ We’ll have to use the smallest boy in the 


ANOTHER OBSTACLE 


167 


bunch,” said Captain Hardy, “ and that’s you, 
Willie. Come. We’ll see what we can do with 
you. Go get me some samples of pine bark and 
needles.” 

Willie speedily got the desired objects. Cap¬ 
tain Hardy examined them critically. “You 
ought to have a dark brown suit, painted with 
irregular stripes, like branches, and dabs of 
green, like foliage.” 

“ Don’t forget his face,” cried Roy in glee. 
“ That will have to be painted brown and green 
also.” 

A laugh went up. “I’m merely telling what 
ought to be done, Willie,” said Captain Hardy 
reassuringly, “ not what we shall do. We have 
to guard against observation by persons other 
than this spy. If the neighbors saw a boy going 
out of here garbed the way you want Willie fixed 
up, Roy, they would begin to ask questions. 
And we don’t know what the spy’s relations are 
with his neighbors. What we shall have to do is 
to dress Willie in clothes as nearly the color of 
the tree as possible. We can get shoes, stock¬ 
ings, and a suit of clothes to match the tree trunk. 


168 


THE SECBET WIKELESS 


We can get a cap the shade of these pine-needles. 
That leaves hands and face. They, too, must 
be disguised. A pair of gloves of the proper 
shade will take care of the hands. But what 
about the face? ” 

“ Nothing for it but to paint it,” said Roy, his 
eyes dancing. 

“ I guess you’re right,” said Captain Hardy. 
Willie made a wry face. The captain saw him. 
“ The trench raiders blacken both their hands 
and faces when they steal out into No Man’s 
Land at night,” he said. “ But we won’t use 
real paint, Willie. We’ll get some theatrical 
paint that comes off easily. I’ll get the necessary 
materials at once.” 

He noted down the sizes needed and went out. 
And it was well he acted so promptly. That 
very afternoon a message from the secret service 
informed them that more transports were sailing. 

“ Come with me and get on your pine tree out¬ 
fit, Willie,” suggested their leader. “ You other 
boys go to your stations at once.” 

Henry’s task henceforth was to trail the driver 
of the roadster. He hurried away to his waiting 


ANOTHER OBSTACLE 


169 


motor-cycle. Lew was at the wireless key again. 
Roy scurried out to the pine grove, and Willie 
followed his captain to be “ camouflaged.” A 
few moments later, dressed in his new brown 
clothes, and a chocolate brown in complexion, he 
slipped from the house and joined Roy. 

Impatiently they waited for the first trans¬ 
port to appear. It was a long time coming. 
But finally Willie picked it out with his glasses, 
far up the Bay, as it nosed its way steadily 
through the rolling waves. Behind it was an¬ 
other transport. As the ships drew near, Willie 
mounted as far up in the tree as he dared, crouch¬ 
ing behind the tops of the surrounding trees, and 
hugging his own tree trunk, motionless, awaiting 
his opportunity to climb to his ultimate post. 
His heart beat fast. His legs shook slightly with 
excitement. He was trembling all over, so eager 
was he to make the ascent. On came the boats. 
Long ago they had passed Robbin’s Reef. Now 
they were well into the Narrows. Suddenly the 
spy appeared at his window, sweeping the channel 
with his glasses, his hands shutting off his vision 
on the sides, like blinders on a horse. Quickly 


170 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Willie scurried up the tree, wrapping himself 
closely about the slender trunk, concealing as 
much of his body as he could, and snuggling be¬ 
hind the sparse clumps of foliage. Then he 
brought his glasses to bear, and sat silently study¬ 
ing the spy’s house. 

The interior of the dwelling was as he had 
guessed it to be. There was no partition wall in 
the forward part of the building, a single column 
upholding the ceiling, so that, above the low sash 
curtains, Willie could see entirely through the 
glassed-in room. This was more than comfort¬ 
able. Willie saw a row of low book-shelves 
lining the north side of the great room. There 
were numerous fine pictures and plaster casts 
here and there. A piano stood in one corner, a 
talking-machine in another. The light within 
seemed to flicker, and Willie guessed that in the 
rear of the room, where he could not see it, a log 
was burning in an open fireplace; for the days 
were growing very chilly. 

But before Willie could complete his observa¬ 
tions, the spy turned from the window and 
walked toward a large, flat desk in the centre of 


ANOTHER OBSTACLE 


171 


the room. Willie shrank close against the tree 
and remained as motionless as a stone image. 
But the spy never once glanced out of the win¬ 
dow. He sank into a chair before the desk, 
switched on an electric desk light, and began to 
write on a piece of paper. Evidently he was 
arranging his message. When this was done to 
his satisfaction, he reached into the desk and drew 
forth a dollar. Willie could see it plainly as the 
spy laid it on his desk blotter, under the lamp. 
Intently Willie strained forward. The spy 
leaned forward and fumbled about the bottom of 
his desk. His hands and arms were hidden and 
Willie could only conjecture what was happen¬ 
ing. Then Willie gave a little gasp of surprise 
as the spy straightened up and laid on the blotter 
beside the dollar a curious little thing like nothing 
Willie had ever seen. Evidently it was of metal 
for it shone under the light. Willie screwed up 
his face as he strained his eyes to identify the 
object. It seemed to be a disc of exactly the 
same size as the dollar. Yet it was not solid, be¬ 
cause Willie could see the blotter through it. 
To Willie the thing resembled nothing so much 


m 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


as a spider-web. What it was, Willie could not 
even guess. 

Meantime the spy had pulled open a drawer, 
from which he took a slender instrument, which 
also Willie could not identify. But evidently it 
had a sharp point; for the spy, after placing the 
disc on the dollar, scratched the milled edge of 
the coin with the little instrument, then he began 
to make marks here and there through the little 
disc, on the surface of the dollar. From time to 
time he turned the coin, and occasionally he 
looked at the writing on his paper. He seemed 
quite expert, for he worked fast. He finished 
his task and leaned over behind his desk, evi¬ 
dently to put the curious disc in its secret 
repository. 

Quick as a flash, Willie slid from his exposed 
perch and safely gained the concealing shelter of 
the lower tree tops before the spy straightened 
up again. Willie climbed on down the tree and 
joined Roy at the usual observation post. 

“ What did you see? ” asked Roy eagerly. 

When Willie had told him, Roy groaned. 
“ Gee! That makes it all the harder. Now 


ANOTHER OBSTACLE 


173 


we’ve got to get one of those discs as well as a 
marked dollar before we can discover how they 
send their messages.” 

The grocer’s boy came and went. Roy trailed 
him back to the store, but prudently kept out of 
sight. There was nothing to be gained by enter¬ 
ing the store again. Meantime Willie scrambled 
up to the house and related to Lew and his cap¬ 
tain what he had seen. And they agreed with 
Roy that the problem, instead of being easier, had 
become more difficult. 


CHAPTER XIII 


WHAT HENRY DISCOVERED 

TTENRY, meantime, was waiting at his sta- 
tion with eagerness and quickened deter¬ 
mination. Despite his leader’s generous words, 
Henry felt in his heart that his last effort had 
been a failure. It was true that he had made 
it possible to learn the identity of the driver of 
the roadster, and that the secret service men had 
in the meanwhile been looking up the man’s 
record; but Henry felt that he should also have 
discovered the location of the secret wireless. 
Now he made up his mind that nothing should 
balk him in the present attempt. That neither 
accident nor anything else should hinder him 
from accomplishing his purpose. He would be 
more skilful than he had ever been before. He 
would watch closer. He would follow his quarry, 
as silently as a shadow and as closely. He would 

do all that his leader expected of him—and more. 

174 


WHAT HEEHY DISCO VEBED 175 

Thus resolving, steeling his mind to the great¬ 
est effort of his life, Henry stood at the little 
window in the garage, all atremble with eager¬ 
ness. He thought he knew every inch of the 
spy’s roadster, but when that car finally rolled 
past, Henry studied it as he had never studied 
anything before. Again he noted the tread of 
each tire and looked for cuts or other distinguish¬ 
ing marks in them. As good luck would have it, 
a turning wagon obstructed the roadster just as 
it reached the little garage, and the roadster 
came almost to a dead stop. Henry studied its 
running-gear, its radiator and bonnet, its dash¬ 
board and wind-shield. And when his eyes got 
so far, they went no further. The standards 
that held up the wind-shield were bulkier and 
thicker than any other such parts Henry could 
remember. The difference was not great, yet 
there was a difference; and like the accomplished 
scout he was, Henry noted that difference and 
questioned it. But, like Willie with the spider¬ 
web disc, he was completely puzzled. The en¬ 
larged standards might mean anything or noth¬ 
ing. The car rolled on and again Henry looked 


176 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


in vain at the number. Some part of it was al¬ 
ways dust covered. But Henry observed that 
the hidden figures were not the same from day 
to day. 

When the car returned from the grocer’s, 
Henry jumped to his motor-cycle and made his 
way to the ferry by a route different from the 
roadster’s. He knew he was taking a chance, 
but he also knew that an accomplice might be 
trailing the roadster to see if the latter were 
watched. Henry could follow the spy to the 
ferry once without arousing much suspicion; but 
if he were twice seen to do so, his usefulness might 
be ended. He knew when the ferry-boat would 
leave its slip and he made his way aboard just 
before the gate closed. 

At once he had a feeling that he had acted 
wisely. The roadster was again in the forward 
part of the boat, but this time the driver did not 
sit placidly looking out over the Bay. He seemed 
nervous, and every little while turned sharp 
around and looked about him. Fortunately 
Henry had concealed his wheel behind a truck 
and was himself where the spy could not see him. 


WHAT HENRY DISCOVERED 177 

When he noted the spy’s restlessness, it flashed 
into his mind that perhaps the secret service men 
who had been investigating this spy had not been 
so careful as they should have been, and that the 
spy had taken alarm. It was a discouraging 
thought, for it made Henry’s task vastly more 
difficult. Wisely, therefore, he went into the 
cabin and sat down. The spy could not see him, 
and if the latter should stroll about the boat, there 
was nothing to indicate to whom the motor-cycle 
belonged. 

As the gate opened and the roadster rolled 
from the ferry-boat, Henry prudently remained 
well behind it. Up Broadway they went, as fast 
as the traffic would allow, their pace gradually 
quickening as they drew away from the congested 
lower end of the island. The spy drove straight 
up Broadway. He circled Union Square and 
continued north. He passed Madison Square 
and still held to Broadway. Past the shopping 
district, past Longacre Square, past Columbus 
Circle, the roadster continued, still on the city’s 
main highway. And at a discreet distance 
Henry followed. 


178 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Now they reached the apartment-house dis¬ 
trict and slid past block after block of bulky 
living apartments. And so they continued past 
Columbia University and down the grade be¬ 
yond. And here Henry’s troubles began. The 
roadster turned to the left, and Henry knew the 
driver was making for the Fort Lee ferry. 

How should he gain the boat unnoticed? How 
should he follow, undetected, along the Jersey 
roads? For after they had crossed the Hudson 
there would be an end to that concealing traffic 
that had so far hidden him. He must follow the 
roadster over lonely roads and yet remain unseen. 
It was a problem to disturb any one. And it 
worried Henry not a little. Fortunately dusk 
was at hand, though the curtaining darkness 
would not fall for some time. 

When the boat reached the Jersey shore, 
Henry permitted the roadster to get a long start 
before he went ashore. The spy turned to the 
right and began to climb the long grade parallel 
to the river, that would lead him to the top of the 
Palisades. When the roadster was almost out 
of sight, Henry mounted his motor-cycle and fol- 


WHAT HENRY DISCOVERED 179 

lowed. Even if his quarry should pass com¬ 
pletely from view, Henry had no fear of losing 
him; for the roadster’s tracks were plain in the 
dusty road. 

The dusk deepened. As it grew darker, 
Henry came closer to his quarry, though he kept 
behind elevations and curves in the road so as 
still to remain invisible to the driver of the car 
ahead. Thus they rode for some miles. The 
country was as Henry had pictured it from his 
study of the maps. It was sparsely built up, 
woodlands were on every hand, and the surface 
of the land was rolling and rock-strewn. It was 
an excellent place in which to hide—and also an 
excellent place in which to dodge one’s enemies. 
As Henry thought of this, he drew closer and 
closer to the car, though still seeking to remain 
out of sight. As the light failed, and it became 
difficult to distinguish the marks in the dust be¬ 
fore him, Henry drew up so that he could see the 
roadster, but he discreetly rode close to the side 
of the highway, where the overhanging trees 
shadowed him. Even had the roadster’s driver 
been looking straight in his direction, he might 


180 


THE SECEET WIKELESS 


never have seen Henry. He was, as he had de¬ 
termined to be, a veritable shadow. 

So they rolled northward. At last it grew 
dark. The driver of the roadster switched on his 
lights. Now Henry crept still closer. He was 
in the dark, his lamp unlighted, his motor running 
silently, and he had no further fear of discovery. 

It was well that darkness had come. They 
had now reached a lonely region where there were 
few houses. Here, Henry judged, was an ex¬ 
cellent place for a secret wireless. And he 
judged correctly, for hardly had the thought 
come into his mind before the roadster turned 
sharply to the left and disappeared. Henry 
darted up the road. He came at once to what 
he judged was a large field. Trees no longer 
bordered the highway on the left side. Dimly 
Henry saw objects here and there which he 
thought were boulders and clumps of bushes. 
He saw no light and stood for a second peering 
into the darkness, listening with bated breath. 
Straight ahead of him he heard the faint purring 
of a muffled motor. He knew that he was not 
many hundred feet behind it and that this time 


WHAT HENRY DISCOVERED 


181 


the car could not escape him. He thrust his 
motor-cycle into some near-by bushes, first 
whipping out his metal cane. Then he ran 
speedily but carefully after the car. 

Evidently it was moving cautiously. Henry 
rapidly drew near to it. When he had come 
so close that he could see it distinctly, he dropped 
to a walk and began to look about, trying to see 
what was around him. Here in the field it was 
lighter than it had been on the highway under 
the shadowing trees. The field was, as Henry 
had guessed, a piece of wild land, grown up with 
thickets, with great boulders here and there. 
Directly ahead of him was a clump of bushes. 
Henry hastened to put them between himself 
and the car. It was well he did; for hardly had 
he gotten behind them before the car stopped and 
the driver got out. The car was not more than 
two hundred feet distant. 

Henry dropped to the ground and lay still for 
a moment. Then he crept, like an Indian, to¬ 
ward the sheltering thicket. Through it he ad¬ 
vanced until he was not more than fifty feet from 
the motor-car. He could see with fair distinct- 


182 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


ness, but was himself completely concealed. He 
lay like a log, watching intently. 

The driver unfastened his top and slid it back¬ 
ward. As he did so, his overcoat caught on the 
open door and he gave an exclamation of im¬ 
patience. When he had laid his top back, he 
lowered the upper half of his wind-shield. Then, 
standing on the running-board, he tugged at the 
top of his wind-shield standard. Up came a 
sliding inner tube. In a flash the entire mystery 
stood revealed to Henry. The wind-shield 
standard contained a collapsible mast, like the 
telescoping cane he held in his hand. Doubtless 
an aerial was now fastened to the mast. Some¬ 
where within the car was a wireless outfit. In¬ 
stead of having many secret stations, the Ger¬ 
mans had this one portable station. 

“ How clever! ” thought Henry. “ And how 
well they deceived us.” 

The spy proceeded to run up his mast. It 
must have reached twenty feet into the air. 
And the aerial was dangling from it, too. Evi¬ 
dently the spy had fastened that on before raising 
the mast. Fifty feet distant stood a tree. The 



UP CAME A SLIDING INNER TUBE 









WHAT HENRY DISCOVERED 183 

spy took something from the baggage container 
and walked over to the tree, where, Henry 
judged by the sound, he was fastening a hook. 
Then the spy carried over the other end of his 
aerial and fastened it to the hook. In the dark¬ 
ness Henry could see nothing of the details of 
this outfit, but he realized that the spy now had 
an aerial at least fifty feet long and well above 
the ground. For short distance communication 
it would answer perfectly. 

The spy returned to his car and got into the 
seat beside the driver’s. Henry wormed his way 
forward as far as he dared, hardly breathing, 
fascinated by what he beheld. For now he could 
see plainly. The spy had turned on a tiny light 
on his dashboard. Cautiously Henry rose to his 
feet, keeping behind a thick bush, and peered 
over the side of the car. The spy took a key 
from his pocket and unfastened a hidden lock. 
The entire cowl board turned down, revealing a 
compact but powerful wireless outfit. The aerial 
wire evidently was strung up within the collaps¬ 
ing mast. 

From within the cowl the spy drew forth a 


184 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


curious metal disc, not unlike a spider-web, and 
like nothing Henry had ever seen. He did not 
know what it was. He hardly breathed as he 
stood watching. Then the spy took a dollar 
from his pocket, examined the milled edge until 
he found a scratch, fitted the curious disc over the 
dollar, and turning the coin in his hand, slowly 
began to make letters on a slip of paper on the 
inverted dash. When he had finished writing, he 
fastened the disc back in the cowl, dropped the 
dollar in his overcoat pocket, and began to send 
the message he had deciphered from the dollar. 

Henry leaned forward. He had no need of 
his own receiving instrument to catch the letters. 
And he could not have used it if he had needed 
it. But it was not important that he should catch 
the message. The powerful sparks that were 
leaping across the spy’s spark-gap told him that 
a battery of considerable force was being used, 
and he knew that Lew would catch that message 
away back on Staten Island. Lew had caught 
the preceding message from Long Island, and it 
had been sent from a distance fully as great as 
this. With distinctness the letters came to 


WHAT HENRY DISCOVERED 


185 


Henry’s ears and he realized that the man before 
him was an expert operator. But the letters he 
heard made no sense. They would have to be 
deciphered before the message could be under¬ 
stood. 

However, it was not the message that Henry 
was thinking of. It was the dollar in the man’s 
overcoat. “ How could he get it? How could 
he get it? ” he asked himself over and over. A 
hundred wild ideas flashed through his head, but 
he could think of no way to secure the coin with¬ 
out betraying himself. 

Even as he was considering the matter, the spy 
finished sending his message and snapped off his 
light. Tiny as the illumination had been, the 
man was apparently completely blinded by the 
sudden darkness. As he stepped from his seat, 
his overcoat again caught on the swinging door. 
With an impatient oath he tore the coat from 
him and flung it on the running-board. Then 
he felt for his tools and walked over to the tree 
to lower the far end of his aerial. 

Henry’s chance had come. With a bound he 
was beside the car. Crouching, he seized the 


186 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


huddled coat, ran his hands tremblingly over it, 
located the pocket, found the dollar, dropped the 
coat where he had gotten it, and slipped back to 
his cover. 

He was not a second too soon. In his eager¬ 
ness to get the coin he had been clumsy, and had 
fumbled excitedly for several seconds before he 
found it. Meantime, the spy, with practised 
skill, had taken down both wires and fastening, 
and was well on his way back to the car. But 
Henry gained his cover and was safe. 

A sudden fear smote him lest he betray him¬ 
self. His heart beat so loudly he was sure the 
spy would hear it. His breath came so excitedly 
he was certain he could be heard yards away. 
For some time he crouched motionless, hugging 
the ground, trying to hold his breath. But as 
second followed second and the spy made no 
outcry, Henry gained confidence. Suddenly a 
feeling of exultation came to him, so strong that 
he could hardly refrain from shouting. For the 
first time he thought of the real significance of 
what he had accomplished. He had unraveled 
the mystery of the wireless. He had the dollar. 


WHAT HENRY DISCOVERED 187 

The secrets the wireless patrol had worked so 
hard to uncover were within his grasp. As the 
full meaning of it all came to him, he felt that he 
must cry out, that he must give voice to his feel¬ 
ings. He no longer dared trust himself to re¬ 
main where he was, lest he betray himself. 
Clutching the dollar as he had never clung to 
anything in his life, he picked up his cane and 
slowly began to worm his way backward, on his 
belly, from the thicket. With the utmost caution, 
an inch at a time, he moved, lest he snap a stick 
or strike a stone with his foot. As soon as he was 
clear of the brush, he faced about, and crawled 
into the darkness. 

The spy, meantime, was proceeding rapidly in 
reassembling his car. Henry heard the wind¬ 
shield go up and the top being fastened. He 
heard the baggage lid snap into place. Then he 
heard the spy swearing in a low voice. Henry 
stopped, still as a hunted rabbit. 

“ Donnerwetter! ” he heard the man say. 
“ I’ve lost that dollar.” There was a pause. 
Then came the words, “ I’m not going to hunt 
for it anyway. Somebody would see my light 


188 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

sure. And if anybody does find it, he’ll never 
guess what it is.” 

Exultantly Henry rose to his feet, and crouch¬ 
ing low, ran with soft, swift tread to his motor¬ 
cycle. He had the dollar. The owner believed 
it was lost. Never was such luck. Trembling 
all over, he fastened his cane to the frame of his 
wheel, trundled his car to the road and ran with 
it in the direction he had come. He pushed it 
until his breath was coming in gasps. Then he 
turned into the woods and hid. He would take 
no chance of being seen by the spy or by any ac¬ 
complice who might have followed him. Pres¬ 
ently Henry heard the motor-car pull out into 
the road and go speeding back toward Man¬ 
hattan. A quarter of an hour later Henry re¬ 
turned to the highway, switched on his light, and 
was soon bowling along on his way to his fellows 
and his chief, feeling that he had in his keeping 
the future safety of a nation. 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE RIDDLE SOLVED 

TN the house above the hawk’s nest, four boys 
A and a man sat far into the night, examining 
a marked dollar and trying to unravel the secret 
of the scratches. From hand to hand the dollar 
passed and was examined now this way, now 
that; but the little group could see no meaning 
in the apparently aimless marks on the silver 
coin. Had some of them not seen this dollar 
marked and its message deciphered and sent 
vibrating through the air, they would have re¬ 
fused to believe that the coin before them carried 
a message at all. It looked like any dollar that 
has accidentally become marked. 

“ To-morrow,” said Captain Hardy, “ we will 
turn the dollar over to the secret service, and 
doubtless their experts will solve the problem 

quick enough. But I certainly wish we could 
189 


190 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


unravel this thing ourselves. Wouldn’t it be an 
achievement for the wireless patrol! ” 

“ It’s going to be,” declared Roy positively. 
“ We’re going to solve it. We’ve just got to. 
We’ll show those secret service men that boys 
are some good after all.” 

But the word was easier than the deed. 
Puzzle their brains as they might, search the 
dollar as they would, they still found no key to 
the language it spoke. 

“ Tell me again what the message was,” de¬ 
manded Henry for the twentieth time, and Lew 
once more passed to Henry the slip of paper on 
which he had written the message, both in cipher 
and deciphered, the message he had picked from 
the air. It read as follows: TRPSLOWA 
OSEDONRADATSTITY. 

TRPSLO 
W A O S E D 
O N R A D A 
T S T I T Y 

Long Henry studied the piece of paper, softly 
reading the message to himself. “ Two trails- 


THE KIDDLE SOLVED 


191 


ports sailed to-day. How did that automobile 
driver get that message from this dollar? ” he 
asked himself, and again he picked up the coin 
and turned it in his hand. “ If only we had that 
disc,” he sighed, “ or a duplicate.” 

At the word “ duplicate,” Roy pricked up his 
ears. “ Maybe we can make one,” he said. 

“ Likely! ” scoffed Lew. 

“You never know till you try,” rejoined Roy. 
Then he turned to Willie and demanded, “ What 
was the disc like that you saw? ” 

“ If I knew, I’d make one,” said Willie. 

“ Well,” said Roy in a tone of disgust, “ you 
know whether it was a foot across or not, and 
whether it was round or square.” 

“ It was round, of course,” said Willie, “ and 
the same size as the dollar. I told jmu that be¬ 
fore.” 

“We can make a disc the size of a dollar, any¬ 
way, even if it doesn’t get us anywhere,” said 
Roy, putting the coin on a sheet of paper and 
outlining it with a pencil. Then with scissors 
he cut the disc out. 

“You saw that disc, or one like it, Henry,” 


192 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


continued Roy. “ What did it look like to 
you? ” 

“ Just like a spider-web, as Willie says,” re¬ 
plied Henry. 

“ All right, we’ll make a spider-web,” said 
Roy. 

He seized his pencil, made a dot in the centre 
of the disc, and from the dot drew straight lines 
that radiated in different directions. Then he 
drew a number of concentric circles about his 
dot. 

“ I don’t see how that helps any,” he said, ex¬ 
amining his drawing. “ Yet that’s the kind of 
thing they used to mark that dollar.” 

From hand to hand the paper passed, and each 
boy compared it with the dollar. But none was 
any the wiser when he had finished. Their leader, 
meantime, sat with his head in his hands, studi¬ 
ously turning the matter over and over in his 
mind. For a long time he could make nothing 
of it. 

After a while he looked up. “ Let me see that 
paper,” he said. 

Roy handed him the little disc. Captain 


THE RIDDLE SOLVED 


193 


Hardy laid the disc beside the dollar on the table, 
and painstakingly examined again the marks on 
the coin. After a time he took a sheet of paper 
and across it in a row wrote down the letters of 
the alphabet. Then he picked up the message 
and made check marks below the letters in his 
alphabet as he found those letters in the message. 
When he had gone through the message, his 
paper looked like this: 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 

/ // / / ,,, /„ / / 

7 7 7 ; 

He picked it up and studied it. “ Four T’s,” 
he said, “ three S’s, three A’s, and three O’s. 
That ought to give us a clue.” 

Again he turned to the dollar and began to 
study it, turning it slowly round, counting the 
scratches this way and that, making geometric 
figures of them. Four heads peered over his 
shoulder as he worked silently with his pencil. 

“ I can make nothing of it,” he said after a 
time. 


194 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Again he sat in deep thought, his fellows mean¬ 
while once more examining dollar and disc and 
the figures their leader had made on the paper. 

“ Four T’s,” repeated Captain Hardy after 
an interval. “ Surely that ought to give us a 
clue.” 

Once more he studied the penciled disc. Then 
he turned to the dollar and again examined its 
markings. He suddenly exclaimed, “ Here are 
four scratches in a straight row.” His eyes be¬ 
gan to shine. Slowly he turned the coin. “ And 
here are three in another row, like this,” and he 
indicated the positions of the scratches on the 
paper disc. “ You notice that each row runs 
from the centre of the coin toward the edge. 
Let’s see if there are any more rows.” 

Very slowly he turned the dollar. “ And 
there are three in a row,” he said, indicating the 
scratches with his pencil, “ and here are three 
more. You notice that the rows all radiate from 
the centre, like spokes in a wheel. I believe we 
are getting somewhere, boys.” 

Like spokes in a wheel,’ ” repeated Roy to 
himself. “ Rows of letters like spokes in a wheel. 


THE RIDDLE SOLVED 


195 


Four scratches in one row or spoke—these 
must be the four T’s. Three scratches in these 
other rows must be O’s and A’s and S’s. I’ve 
got it! IVe got it!” he suddenly shouted. 
“ There must be as many spokes as there are 
letters in the alphabet.” 

“ I believe you are right, Roy,” said Captain 
Hardy, looking up with a gleam in his eyes. 
“ That’s exactly what I am beginning to think. 
We’ll soon see if you are right. Make me an¬ 
other disc.” 

With a pocket rule he measured the diameter 
of the dollar. “ Practically an inch and a half,” 
he announced, putting down the figures 1.5 on 
paper. He multiplied those figures by 3.1416. 

“ That,” said he, pointing to the resulting fig¬ 
ures, 4.71-f-, “ represents the circumference of a 
dollar. Now we’ll divide the circumference by 
26, the number of letters in the alphabet.” 

Pie performed the division. “ Eighteen one- 
hundredths of an inch,” he announced. “ That’s 
practically a scant fifth of an inch. We’ll call it 
so, anyhow,” he continued as he marked off the 
space on a sheet of paper with his rule. “ Each 


196 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

sector,” he said, “ gets exactly that amount of 
space on the circumference.” 

He pulled open the drawer of the desk and 
began to rummage through a tray full of pens, 
pencils, and other drawing materials. “ I won¬ 
der if there is such a thing as a pair of dividers 
here,” he remarked. And a moment later he ex¬ 
claimed “ Good! ” and drew forth the compasses 
he was looking for. 

He set his dividers according to the space he 
had marked off with his rule, then proceeded to 
divide the circumference of the new paper disc. 
When he had gone completely round the disc, he 
seized pencil and ruler and began to draw lines 
from centre to circumference—the spokes of his 
wheel—each spoke running from the dot in the 
centre to one of the points indicated by the 
dividers. When he had finished, the disc was 
divided into twenty-six equal sectors, like tiny 
pieces of a pie. 

“We shall soon know whether you are right 
or not in your guess, Roy,” said Captain 
Hardy. 

He laid the dollar beside the disc and began to 


THE BIDDLE SOLVED 


197 


copy on the disc the marks on the dollar. “ We’ll 
put four marks in this sector,” he said, making 
four dots with his pencil. “ They are like those 
four scratches here,” and he pointed to the four 
marks in a row on the dollar. “ They must be 
four T’s. At any rate we’ll call this the T sector. 
On the dollar you notice this row of three 
scratches—the next sector to the left of the T 
sector. You remember we had three O’s, three 
A’s, and three S’s. These three scratches must, 
therefore, be O’s, A’s, or S’s. Since they are 
next to the T’s, they are doubtless S’s. I’ll mark 
the sector so anyway. That gives us the T 
sector and the S sector. If we are on the right 
track, then the sector to the left of the S space is 
the R sector, and so on. I’ll mark the disc that 
way, anyhow.” 

Slowly he turned the disc around, putting a 
letter at the bottom of each sector. When he 
had finished, he had completed the alphabet. 
About him clustered his four comrades, too 
deeply interested to speak. They hardly even 
breathed. 

“ Take this paper, Roy,” said Captain Hardy, 


198 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


“ and tell me how many times each letter in the 
message appears.” 

Roy took the paper on which Captain Hardy 
had made his numerical enumeration. “ Three 
A’s,” he said. 

Captain Hardy made three marks in the A 
sector. 

“ No B’s, no C’s, and two D’s.” 

The D’s were scored. So they went through 
the alphabet. When they were done, the mark¬ 
ings on the disc were practically a duplicate of 
those on the dollar, for Captain Hardy studied 
the dollar each time before marking the paper 
disc. 

“ That’s it,” cried Willie. “ That’s it ex¬ 
actly.” 

“ It’s right so far as it goes, Willie,” said their 
leader, “ but we haven’t all of it yet. Suppose I 
hand you a disc with four T’s, three S’s, two Z’s, 
three L’s, and so on. Could you make a message 
out of it? ” 

Willie studied the disc on the desk. “ No,” 
he said, “ I couldn’t. I shouldn’t know how to 
arrange the letters to make words out of them.” 


THE RIDDLE SOLVED 


199 


“ Neither would anybody else,” continued 
Captain Hardy. “ Those spies have some way 
of knowing how to tell the order in which to read 
these letters.” 

For some time he sat studying the scratches 
on the dollar. The four boys were quiet as mice, 
each trying to solve the problem that stood be¬ 
tween them and complete mastery of the cipher. 

“ You said that the metal disc resembled a 
spider’s web,” began Captain Hardy, talking 
more to himself than to the boys. “We know 
what the straight lines—the spokes—are for. 
The concentric circles must be to indicate the 
order of the letters. Let me see.” Again he 
studied the dollar closely. “ Some of these 
marks are near the centre of the disc, some half¬ 
way between centre and circumference, and some 
close to the outer edge. I believe the secret lies 
there.” 

“ Listen! ” cried Willie of a sudden. “ When 
a spider spins a web, she begins at the centre and 
works outward. Maybe these spies write their 
messages in the same way.” 

“ Willie,” cried Captain Hardy, “ you’ve hit 


200 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


it exactly. You’re as good a reasoner as you are 
an observer. Now we’ll begin at the centre and 
spin this message outward. What’s the first 
letter? ” 

“ T,” said four voices together. 

The captain took his dividers and found the 
scratch nearest the centre of the disc. In the 
same sector with this scratch were three other 
scratches in a line. 

“ It’s a T,” he announced, “ just as it should 
be.” 

With his dividers he found the letter next 
nearest to the centre. It stood alone. “ That’s 
a W,” he announced. 

Rapidly he located the scratch the third near¬ 
est to the centre. “ And that’s an O,” he said, 
looking up with flashing eyes. “We need go no 
farther. We have the entire secret. We have 
deciphered their cipher.” 

A cry of exultation arose. 

“ To-morrow,” continued Captain Hardy, 
“ we will get a piece of transparent celluloid and 
make a disc like their own. We can ink in the 
circles and the radius lines and our disc will be 


THE RIDDLE SOLVED 


201 


almost a duplicate of theirs, except that our disc 
will be solid while their discs have open spaces 
between the circles. But that is only a detail. 
We can read their cipher as well as if we had 
one of their own discs.” 

“ Wait,” cried Willie, as his comrades started 
to cheer again. “ What is the scratch on the 
milled edge of the dollar for? ” 

“ That,” replied Captain Hardy, “ is to indi¬ 
cate how the disc is to be placed on the dollar. 
That scratch is exactly between the Z and the A 
sectors. It shows where the alphabet begins. 
Now we have their entire secret.” 


CHAPTER XV 


ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED 

PIECE of transparent celluloid, furnished 



by their host from a broken side curtain of 
his automobile, supplied Captain Hardy with the 
material needed for making the disc that was to 
be the key to future communications of the 
enemy. Carefully he cut the celluloid the size 
of a dollar, then marked the exact centre of it. 
Next he clamped the disc on the captured coin. 
Between the rows of letters he scratched in the 
straight radius lines—the spokes of a wheel. 
Then Captain Hardy put the end of one arm of 
his dividers in the dot at the centre of his disc, 
and swept the other arm around, scratching a 
circle just outside the first letter in the message— 
the innermost T. Examination showed that this 
circle fell just inside of the second letter in the 
message—the W. Adjusting his calipers, the 
draughtsman made a second circle, just outside 
of this second letter. A third circle fell between 


202 


ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED 203 

the first O and the second T of the message. So 
Captain Hardy continued, each succeeding circle 
falling just outside of the succeeding letter in 
the message. When he had finished, his disc con¬ 
tained twenty-three concentric circles, between 
which could plainly be seen the bright dots or 
scratches in the dingy dollar. 

“Whew!” said Captain Hardy, as he laid 
down his dividers. “ That’s pretty fine work— 
twenty-three circles within a space of an inch 
and a half. I’ll wager a watchmaker made their 
pattern for them. The solid parts of their metal 
discs can’t be much larger than these lines I have 
scratched on the celluloid. You were right when 
you named it, Willie. The parts of it must be 
just about as thick as a spider-web.” 

The boys passed the dollar and its super¬ 
imposed disc from hand to hand, examining them 
with eager interest. 

“ Suppose they wanted to send a message with 
more than twenty-four letters in it,” said Roy. 
“ How could they do it? I’m sure some of the 
messages we intercepted had more than twenty- 
four letters in them.” 


204 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


Captain Hardy picked up the disc-covered 
dollar and studied it intently. “ I suppose,” he 
said after a time, “ that they would put more 
than one dot in the same circle, and the dots 
would be read in the same way they are now. 
The one to be read first would be nearest the 
centre of the coin, and so on. Or they could 
write on several coins, each coin being numbered 
in some way, and corresponding to a paragraph 
in a composition.” 

Again he studied the dollar closely. “ Clever! ” 
he said admiringly. “ Mighty clever! Who 
would ever dream that those tiny scratches meant 
anything? Many a time I’ve seen a dollar 
scratched and nicked a deal worse than this one 
is, though they’ve evidently chosen a battered one 
so that their own marks will be less noticeable. 
Why, that coin might have passed through our 
hands a hundred times, and if we had not actually 
seen it ‘marked we should never dream it said 
anything other than ‘ In God We Trust.’ We’ve 
had a great stroke of luck, boys.” 

He paused and meditated. “ I wonder if it is 
luck,” he went on. “ May not the motto on that 


ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED 


205 


dollar explain our good fortune? Perhaps it is 
Providence rather than blind luck that has guided 
us. At any rate let us hope so. Now Ini going 
to report to the Chief. Won’t he get a sur¬ 
prise? ” 

And Captain Hardy left his subordinates, 
chuckling at the prospect of the Chief’s astonish¬ 
ment. 

But it was Captain Hardy who had the sur¬ 
prise. Instead of the stern, silent, brusque man 
he had become accustomed to, Captain Hardy 
found the Chief smiling and talkative. As his 
eye fell on Captain Hardy, the Chief rubbed his 
hands with apparent satisfaction. Evidently 
something had happened that had put him in an 
extremely good humor. 

“Ah! Captain Hardy,” he said, “we beat 
you to it this time. I already know what you 
have come to tell me. But I am glad to see you 
just the same. One of our operators,” continued 
the Chief, “ happened to be shifting his tuning- 
coil when our friends, the enemy, were sending 
their message yesterday afternoon, so that I have 
all the latest spy news.” 


206 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


He paused and smiled at his astonished visitor. 
“ You see,” he added, a real Irish twinkle com¬ 
ing into his eyes, “ the secret service is not so 
slow after all.” 

“ Congratulations!” cried Captain Hardy, in 
the same spirit of fun. “ The secret service is 
improving. But I have some news that may 
make my trip not altogether without interest to 
you.” 

The Chief interrupted him. “ We know who 
the man is that has been telephoning to your 
Staten Island grocer about sugar,” he said. 
“ When he called up yesterday afternoon, the 
telegraph operator flashed the tip to my man, 
who happened to be on duty within a few doors 
of the place the man was talking from. Of 
course my man spotted him and trailed him. 
The fellow proves to be a clerk on one of the 
piers where transports are loading. His position 
gives him no opportunity to get aboard the ships, 
so he does not know what goes into the trans¬ 
ports. But he does know how many boats are 
loading and about when they will sail. Evi¬ 
dently he is afraid to telephone directly to any 


ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED 207 


of the better known German agents we are 
watching, and as far as that goes he may not 
even know who they are. I suppose this plan 
of communicating with Staten Island is to give 
the spy there a chance to observe the transports 
as they sail from the harbor, and see if he can 
learn anything about their cargoes. We have 
put this steamship clerk under observation and 
from now on he will be watched night and day. 
We’re closing in on them fast.” 

“ Congratulations! ” cried Captain Hardy 
again, this time in sober earnest. “You are do¬ 
ing excellent work. Now when you hear what 


Again the Chief interrupted him. “ Oh! I 
haven’t told you all my news yet, not by a long 
shot,” he said. And again the head of the secret 
service rubbed his hands together. “We know 
who the driver of the wireless motor-car is. I 
don’t mean we know the name he’s using. Any¬ 
body could get that out of a directory. It’s 
Sanders. But we know who he really is. And 
that’s why we feel so good to-day. He’s a man 
we’ve been looking for for months. He is one 



208 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


of the German agents implicated in the papers 
we seized in Wolf von Igel’s office. The secret 
service has been more than anxious to discover 
his whereabouts. Now we have him, for he’s 
under observation and cannot escape us. 

“ He came to this country about a year before 
the war started,” continued the Chief, a gleam 
of satisfaction shining in his eyes, “ and bought 
out an insurance agent who made a specialty of 
insuring suburban properties. From the be¬ 
ginning, he made a practice of visiting the prop¬ 
erties that he insured. This took him about a 
good deal and gave him an excuse for being so 
much in a motor-car. Ah! What an ideal 
situation for a spy! Clever, aren’t they? ” 

But the Chief gave his visitor no chance to 
reply to his query. Smiling again, he went on, 
“ But even this is not all. Of course you un¬ 
derstand, Captain, that your boys are not the 
only amateurs helping us out in this pinch. 
Ever since we became convinced that the Ger¬ 
mans have a line of secret wireless stations by 
which they are relaying news to their agents in 
Mexico—for we’re morally certain that is where 


ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED 209 

these messages go—we’ve had trusted amateurs 
helping us just as you have helped us—by listen¬ 
ing in. Some of them have been at it for weeks. 
When we could get no trace of secret messages 
along the direct route to Mexico, where they 
would naturally have their stations, we began to 
suspect that the Germans were using a round¬ 
about route in the hope of deceiving us com¬ 
pletely.” 

“ And you’ve located some of them? ” 

“ Exactly. Your boys will tell you that yes¬ 
terday was one of those days when radio com¬ 
munication is at its best—when an operator picks 
up sounds that at other times he could not pos¬ 
sibly hear. The result was that we picked up 
yesterday’s secret message at half a dozen dif¬ 
ferent points. Where do you think the first one 
was?” 

“ Give it up.” 

“ Buffalo—north instead of south. Clever, 
eh? Then we got it near Detroit, and Mil¬ 
waukee, and Omaha, and Santa Fe. Finally 
one of our listeners picked it up at Socorro, a 
place about one hundred and seventy miles north 


210 


THE SECBET WIEELESS 


of El Paso. Now we know the line of their 
stations. We’ll set a regiment of amateurs to 
listening in along that line and we’ll locate every 
station in it in no time. Then we’ll grab all their 
agents at the same time in one big raid and wipe 
out this spy system for good.” 

“ That is great news,” said Captain Hardy, 
his eyes sparkling with interest. “ Great! You 
certainly have cause to feel good.” 

“ For a little while,” replied the Chief, “ I 
thought I had even more good news. But it 
proved to be a false alarm.” 

“ What was it? ” inquired Captain Hardy as 
the Chief stopped speaking. 

“ Oh! Simply this. Some time ago one of 
our listeners caught an earlier message near 
Socorro, which gave us a hint as to where the 
messages were crossing the border. We at once 
sent a number of expert army wireless men into 
that part of the border region to listen in. One 
message was picked up at a point fifty miles 
north of the boundary, but it was very faint. 
Along the line itself the radio men have never 
detected a sound. Yet your boys are intercept- 


ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED 211 


ing the messages here, so we know that they are 
being sent regularly. That made us think that 
perhaps the messages were being telephoned the 
last lap of the journey and carried over the line 
by a person.” 

“ I have no doubt that your theory is correct,” 
said Captain Hardy. 

“ Well, last night we thought for a time that 
we had the man who was carrying the messages. 
When my operator here picked up the message 
yesterday afternoon, I instantly sent a message 
to my subordinate in charge of the work in the 
El Paso district, telling him of the sending of the 
message and urging extra vigilance. Yet not 
one of the radio men heard a sound. But in the 
middle of the night my men grabbed a Mexican 
who had slipped past the armed guards and was 
starting to wade across the Rio Grande to 
Mexico.” 

“Excellent!” cried Captain Hardy. 

“ Good enough as far as it went,” said the 
Chief, with a wry face, “ but it didn’t go far 
enough. The fellow was only a smuggler.” 

“ Are you certain, Chief? ” 


212 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


“ Sure as preaching, worse luck.” 

“ Was the man searched thoroughly? ” 

“ Now, Captain, what do you think the secret 
service is, anyway ? Was he searched! It would 
make your eyes pop out if you’d see the way we 
go through a man. We strip him and give him 
a lemon bath to bring out any secret message that 
might be written on his skin, and we take his 
clothes apart scientifically, I tell you. No, this 
fellow had nothing incriminating on him. After 
a grueling examination, he admitted that he had 
crossed the line to smuggle in some tobacco. 
However, it’s only a question of time until we do 
put our finger on the missing link. Then for a 
great raid! ” 

“ How I shall welcome that day,” said Captain 
Hardy. “ This spy business is never absent 
from my thoughts, with its menace to our boys 
on the ocean.” 

“ I think that you will soon be free to go back 
to the army,” said the Chief. “ Your work is 
about done. This thing is coming to a head fast 
now. But of course I shall need your boys to 
listen in for a time, so that we can know what the 


ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED 213 

Germans are sending. But there will probably 
be no more real work for you. We certainly are 
grateful for the help you gave us, though. We 
have been terribly crowded these last few weeks.” 

In his pride at the work his boys had done, 
Captain Hardy momentarily forgot the errand 
that had brought him to the Chiefs office. He 
stood before the head of the secret service, smiling 
happily. Again he began to think of that long 
chain of secret wireless stations, so sinister and 
so menacing, with voice crying treachery to voice 
through the air, carrying word that at any time 
might cause the murder of thousands of our brave 
soldiers. Mentally he journeyed along the line 
of those stations—from New York to Buffalo, 
to Detroit, to Milwaukee, to Omaha, to Santa 
Fe, to Socorro, to Mexico. With quick imagina¬ 
tion he pictured the scores of little secret stations 
needed to carry those treacherous messages 
across so vast a span of earth. Some he saw 
skilfully hidden in forests, as the wireless had 
been concealed at the Elk City reservoir. Some 
he pictured in abandoned farmhouses. Others 
he saw in barns, in the stacks of ruined factories. 


214 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


And some he imagined as flinging their voices 
abroad amid the burning plains of the arid 
border-lands. But he could not picture to him¬ 
self the invisible messenger that took the word 
across the boundary. He could not fathom the 
mystery, he could not picture to himself the miss¬ 
ing link in the chain. As was always the case 
with him, his mind began at once to grapple with 
its problem—in this instance the riddle of the 
missing link. He actually forgot where he was. 

“ I wonder,” he said, though he was really talk¬ 
ing to himself, “ what was done with that 
smuggler.” 

“We clapped him into jail to await trial for 
smuggling,” said the Chief. 

Captain Hardy came to himself with a start, 
and smiled. “You say they got nothing in¬ 
criminating on him,” he remarked. “ Did your 
men find anything at all? ” 

“ Only the money he had gotten for his to¬ 
bacco.” 

Mechanically Captain Hardy had thrust his 
hand into his pocket. As the Chief answered the 
question, Captain Hardy’s fingers came in con- 


ANOTHER MYSTERY UNRAVELED 215 


tact with a silver dollar and a disc of celluloid. 
Of a sudden an eager light flashed into his eyes. 
“ What kind of money did that Mexican have? ” 
he demanded. 

“ Some silver,” said the Chief indifferently. 

“ Of what denominations? ” 

“ Dollars. He had three of them.” 

“ What was done with that money? ” asked 
the captain with an earnestness that was almost 
tragic. 

“ Oh! The greaser made such a disturbance 
that the jailer let him keep it. He’s got it with 
him in the jail.” 

A great sigh burst from Captain Hardy’s 
lips. “ Telegraph your men instantly,” he cried, 
“ to get those dollars. That Mexican is no 
smuggler. He’s a spy. He’s the man who 
carries the messages across the border. The 
messages are on the dollars. And here’s the key 
to the cipher! ” 

And he drew from his pocket and laid before 
the Chief a battered silver dollar and a curiously 
marked celluloid disc. 


CHAPTER XVI 


AN UNEXPECTED MESSAGE 

AS lie surprised? ” cried the four boys of 



~ Y the wireless patrol, as their captain 
entered the living-room after his trip to the 
secret service offices. 

Captain Hardy chuckled. “ I think he was,” 
he said. “ But for a time it was I who was sur¬ 
prised. The Chief knew from his own men all 
about yesterday’s message. One of them picked 
it up. What’s more, he has a lot of amateurs in 
different parts of the country listening in, just 
as you are doing, and they picked up yesterday’s 
message at enough different points to indicate 
the line of the secret stations we are after. The 
messages are crossing the border somewhere near 
El Paso. But the Germans are getting them 
across in some way other than by wireless. 
They know we’d spot their outfit quick. The 
Chief thinks some one telephones the messages 


216 


AN UNEXPECTED MESSAGE 217 

the last lap and that a messenger carries them 
into Mexico.” 

“And what about the dollar and the disc?” 
asked Roy. “ What did the Chief think of 
them? ” 

“ Well, he was surprised. And what’s more, 
we got hold of that dollar at exactly the right 
moment. The secret service men arrested a 
Mexican who was wading the Rio Grande at El 
Paso last night. They searched him and found 
nothing on him that seemed incriminating. They 
questioned him and the fellow finally said he had 
smuggled some tobacco into this country, so they 
put him in jail as a smuggler. The fellow had 
some money he had gotten for his tobacco—and 
it was three silver dollars! The secret service 
men down there knew nothing of what we have 
found out here, so they gave the fellow back his 
money. But I am morally certain that their 
man is the spy who carries the messages across 
the border.” 

“ Of course,” cried Willie. “ What else could 
he be—sneaking across the boundary with three 
silver dollars.” 


218 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Everybody laughed. 

“ It doesn’t follow that he’s a spy, just because 
he has three silver dollars. He may be a 
smuggler, all right enough. But I believe the 
smuggling is just a blind. If he were a genuine 
smuggler, he’d bring more than three dollars’ 
worth of stuff across.” 

“ What have they done with his dollars now? ” 
asked Roy eagerly. 

“ I don’t know, Roy. The Chief got into 
instant touch with his men at El Paso as soon as 
I showed him the dollar Henry got. But I left 
before I knew what the outcome was. However, 
I have no doubt they will find that the dollars are 
what we suspect them to be.” 

“Gee!” said Willie. “To think that the 
wireless patrol found out about those dol¬ 
lars ! ” 

“ I guess the secret service knows by this time 
that boys are worth something,” smiled Roy. 
“ Before we get through, they may think so even 
more.” 

“ You’re certainly not increasing in modesty,” 
laughed their leader. 


AN UNEXPECTED MESSAGE 219 

“ Well, I don’t care,” said Roy hotly. “ It 
makes me tired. Everybody says, ‘ Oh! They’re 
only boys.’ Of course we’re only boys, but look 
at what we’ve done. Why, the wireless patrol 
has got the best set of fellows-” 

But Roy’s protest was smothered in a burst 
of laughter from his fellows. 

“ Well, I’m glad you feel so good over what 
we’ve been fortunate enough to accomplish,” said 
CaxDtain Hardy, “for I fear there will be no 
more excitement for you. The Chief says his 
men now have the spy business well in hand, and 
that all he wants of us from now on is merely to 
stay here and catch their messages until he is 
ready to make his raid.” 

“ Just what I was saying,” burst out Roy in¬ 
dignantly. “ They won’t let us in on their raid 
because 4 we’re only boys.’ But who was it 
caught the dynamiters, if it wasn’t 4 just boys ’? 
The men couldn’t do it. They tried twice and 
failed. Gee! It makes me tired.” 

“ Never mind, Roy,” said Captain Hardy 
smiling. “ Even if we don’t have any further 
taste of excitement, we can always remember 



220 


THE SECBET WIKELESS 


that we had a big part in catching these spies— 
for they’re going to be caught, sure. And you 
mustn’t forget that if we stay here and do well 
the part assigned to us, we are helping just as 
much as the men who actually round up the spies. 
You know Milton says ‘ They also serve who only 
stand and wait.’ If there aren’t any reserves to 
stand and wait behind the lines, the men on the 
firing-line do not dare to push ahead. And be¬ 
sides, Roy, it is seldom that four boys play so 
important a part in great deeds as you four boys 
already have played.” 

“ Four boys and a man,” corrected Henry. 
“ Without you we could never have gotten any¬ 
where,” and Henry looked affectionately at his 
captain. 

“Oh! Yes, I had a part in it,” agreed the 
captain, “ but it was only a part.” 

“ But you read the ciphers,” protested Henry. 
“If you hadn’t done that, we could not have 
made any headway at all.” 

“ And who caught the messages for me to 
decipher? The reason we have gotten along so 
well is because we work together so perfectly. I 


AN UNEXPECTED MESSAGE 


221 


want to thank you boys for being so faithful. 
I’ve given you many hard tasks to do.” 

“ After our experiences at Camp Brady,” said 
Lew, “ we couldn’t do anything else than be 
faithful. We know by experience what happens 
when we don’t do our duty.” 

“ Then you are going to listen in during the 
remainder of the spy hunt,” said Captain Hardy, 
with an affectionate smile, “ just as faithfully as 
though your work weren’t already done and the 
spice gone out of it. I know it will be dull and 
uninteresting, boys, but you’ve made such a fine 
record that I don’t want you to fall down now. 
So be very careful—if only for my sake.” 

“ They’ve never talked once,” said Henry rue¬ 
fully, “ excepting after the transports sail. I 
don’t suppose they ever will except when the 
ships go out. We’ll have to listen to nothing 
for twenty-four hours a day. But we’re going 
to do it just the same.” 

He rose and walked toward the wireless room. 
“ It’s back to the mines for me,” he added. And 
he disappeared through the doorway of the wire¬ 
less room. 


222 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

But hardly had he sat down and clamped the 
receiver to his ears before he cried out. His 
fellows came flocking into the room. Henry was 
swiftly writing a string of letters on a sheet of 
paper. 

“ Something of moment must be afoot,” said 
Captain Hardy, in a low voice, “ for them to be 
talking at this time. It must be important, in¬ 
deed.” 

“ It’s a long message,” whispered Willie, as 
Henry continued to fashion letter after letter. 

“ Something tells me it is important,” repeated 
Captain Hardy. “ What can it be? You don’t 
suppose the secret service men have alarmed 
them, do you? ” 

Henry finished his writing and laid down his 
pencil. His chief picked up the sheet of paper 
and scanned the long line of letters Henry had 
made, like this: EE ANNRDBOEUNR 
YWSEUTTERON SNNFEEIAY 

wmnvttasAnxjuleigok 

WSXVATYIZLETK. 

“ Sixty-five,” he said aloud, after counting the 
letters carefully. 


AN UNEXPECTED MESSAGE 223 

A frown came over his face as he stood looking 
at the paper in his hand. “ Sixty-five,” he re¬ 
peated. “ All their other cipher messages have 
made four even lines. You can’t divide sixty- 
five evenly by four. Boys, I believe—but we’ll 
make sure first.” 

He sank into a chair, laid the paper on the 
desk, and arranged the letters according to the 
old plan, thus: 

EEANNRD BOEUNR YW 
SEUTTERONS NNFEE 
I AYWMN VTTAS ANXJ 
ULE IG OKWSNVATY I 

“ I don’t know what to do with the five letters 
left over,” he said, as he laid down his pencil. 
Then as he ran his eye down column after column 
and across each line, he continued, “ But I guess 
it makes no difference. It is just as I thought. 
I feel more certain than ever that something of 
great importance is afoot. They’ve switched to 
another cipher.” 


CHAPTER XVII 


A CHANGE IN CIPHERS 


OR some moments there was a complete 



-*■ silence in the room. The members of the 
wireless patrol looked at one another in astonish¬ 
ment, questioning with their eyes the meaning of 
this new turn of events. Captain Hardy sat 
staring at the message before him, his brow 
wrinkled, his eyelids drawn close together, trying 
to find some new clue to the puzzle before him. 
And until he spoke, the lads of the little patrol 
forbore to utter a sound. So for some time the 
room remained as silent as a tunnel. 

At last the captain glanced up from his paper 
and noted the intent looks bent upon him, and the 
deep silence. He shook off his abstraction. 

“ It looks as though we were up again$£ it,” he 
said. “ Every minute I feel more certain that 
something serious has happened. Why should 
they be sending radio messages at this hour, when 


224 


A CHANGE IN CIPHERS 225 

they have never sent them before excepting after 
the transports sailed? And why should they now 
use a new cipher? Their plan evidently was to 
use radio communication as little as possible, lest 
they be detected. So they sent nothing by wire¬ 
less but the most important news—the news of 
ship movements, which had to be got to Germany 
at once. All other messages they conveyed in 
some slower but safer way. We know they used 
the telephone, and sent messages by a boy, and 
wrote on dollars, and carried messages by motor¬ 
car, and probably sent code letters through the 
mails. For all ordinary correspondence they 
used these slower, safer methods. Only when 
they absolutely had to, did they employ the wire¬ 
less. So we must assume that they had to now.” 

He paused and glanced from face to face. 
“ But why the change of cipher? ” he continued. 
“ It must be because they fear that the old cipher 
will be understood.” 

Again the captain fell silent. “ What can 
have happened? ” he inquired soberly, “ that 
makes the use of wireless so imperative? What 
can it be? Only something new and unforeseen. 


226 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


And what could there be new and unforeseen ex¬ 
cept the detection of their plot? More and more 
I am convinced that these plotters have been 
alarmed.” 

He fell into a brown study for a moment. 
“ This message can mean nothing else,” he said 
after a little. “It is imperative that we learn 
what it is at the earliest possible moment. Make 
four copies of the message you took, Henry.” 

Captain Hardy’s first lieutenant took the 
paper from his leader’s hand and on four sheets 
of paper copied the string of letters he had picked 
from the air. 

“ Now, boys,” said the leader of the patrol, 
when the copies were complete, “ put your think¬ 
ing caps on. Each of you take one of these 
copies and see what you can make of it. You 
know how we deciphered the other cipher.” 

In another moment four boys were wrinkling 
their foreheads as they bent over the cryptic 
strings of letters. And over the room came a 
hush deep as midnight’s. 

For a few moments nobody broke the silence. 
Each boy was busy with his own thoughts. 


A CHANGE IN CIPHERS 227 

Henry was scowling at his paper. Willie was 
studying the letters before him, as in earlier days 
he had studied the landscapes about Camp Brady 
and the Elk City reservoir. Lew already had a 
hopeless look on his face. At threading the 
forest he was second to none in skill; but at un¬ 
tangling mental puzzles, he had small ability. 
The nimble-witted Roy was already setting about 
his task with that keenness so characteristic of 
him. 

“ Sixty-five letters,” he said to himself. “ If 
this cipher is anything like the other, those letters 
must be arranged in columns of equal size.” 

For a second he sat scanning the letters. Then 
he muttered, “ What will divide sixty-five 
evenly? ” And a moment later, he answered his 
own query by adding, “ Five, and thirteen.” 

He paused and again ran his eye along the row 
of letters. “ If this cipher works like the other 
there must be five rows of thirteen letters each, 
or thirteen rows of five each. I’ll try the five 
rows first. That’s more like the other cipher.” 

Swiftly he set down the five rows of letters, 
thus: 


228 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


EEANNRDBOEUNR 
YWSEUTTERONSN 
N F E E I A Y WM N V T T 
ASANXJULEIGOK 
WSNVATYIZLETK 

Eagerly he ran his eye down the columns of 
letters, as he had become accustomed to doing 
with the old cipher, but the letters were unin¬ 
telligible. Next he read the letters across the 
rows, but with no better result. The eager look 
faded from his eyes. 

“I’ll have to try the other,” he said, and began 
to make his letters into rows of five each, thus: 


E E A N N 
R D B O E 
U N R YW 
S E U T T 
E R O N S 
N N F E E 
I A YWM 
N V T T A 
S A N X J 
U L E I G 
O KWS N 
V A T Y I 
Z L E T K 


A CHANGE IN CIPHERS 229 

With renewed eagerness he ran his eye down 

the first column. “ E-R-U-S-E-N-I-N-” 

he began, then stopped short in disgust. “ Noth¬ 
ing doing that way,” he muttered. 

Then he read the letters across the rows: 
“ E-E-A-N-N-” 

“ They’ve got me stopped,” he said. And he 
threw down his pencil and sat staring at the paper 
before him, twisting the letters into every shape 
he could think of, but to no avail. 

Meantime each of the other members of the 
patrol was going through much the same process. 
Lew gave up first, acknowledging himself beaten. 
Henry sat scowling and working away industri¬ 
ously. Dr. Hardy tried first one combination 
of letters, then another, but in vain. Willie had 
laid out the letters in exactly the same way Roy 
had. But Willie worked differently from any 
boy in the group. The rest had been feverishly 
setting down letters as new combinations pre¬ 
sented themselves to their minds, whether the 
combinations seemed logical or not. Willie first 
arranged his letters in the long rows and sat for 
many minutes looking intently at them. 





230 


THE SECKET WIKELESS 


At Camp Brady it was Willie who had learned, 
better than any other member of the patrol, the 
lesson of observation. When the patrol was 
practising scouting, which is only another name 
for close observing, Willie had sat for hours 
studying the landscapes, even when his fellows 
teased him. Thus he had learned to see every¬ 
thing within sight and make note of it. And 
when a guide was needed later, to conduct a party 
through the midnight woods in quest of the dyna¬ 
miters’ lair, Willie was the scout who was able 
to do it. He had observed perfectly and so care¬ 
fully noted what he saw that even in the darkness 
he could find his way. 

So now he examined his long rows of letters 
until he knew everything about them; and he was 
certain they told no story. When he was cer¬ 
tain, he rearranged the letters, as Roy had done, 
in rows of five each. Then he laid down his 
pencil and began another careful search. He 
read the topmost line from left to right, and 
from right to left. It made no sense. He took 
the second and found no meaning in it. Another 
boy might have skipped the others, but not 


A CHANGE IN CIPHEES 


231 


Willie. Each of the thirteen rows he studied 
forward and backward. 

Then he ran his eye down the first column, just 
as Roy had done. It spelled nothing. But 
when he began at the bottom and came upward, 
an eager light leaped into his eyes. He could 
make nothing of the lowest five letters; but the 
eight above certainly spelled two words: “nine 
sure.” If the message was in English, Willie 
knew he had found something definite to work 
on. He could make nothing of the second 
column, either upward or downward. But the 
third column gave him distinctly the words 
“ twenty four.” The next column yielded more 
words: “ Six twenty.” 

By this time Willie’s eyes were flashing. He 
turned to the bottom of the last column and be¬ 
gan to read upward. A single glance confirmed 
his suspicion. 

“ Captain Hardy,” he cried, jumping over to 
his chief, and laying his paper on the captain’s 
desk, “ begin at the bottom of the last column 
and read upward. I believe this cipher is exactly 
the opposite of the other.” 


232 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


Willie’s fellows dropped their pencils and 
gathered eagerly about their leader as he slowly 
read the letters, beginning at the bottom of the 
last column and reading upward and backward 
in the exact opposite of the way the former mes¬ 
sages had been deciphered. 

“ lv,” he read, “ I-N-G-J-A-M-E-S-T-W-E- 
N -T-Y-S - I-X-T-W-E-N-T-Y- O - N - E-T-W- 
E-N-T-Y-F-O-U-R-B-A-L-A-K-L-A-V-A-N- 
R-E-N-D-E-Z-V-O-U-S-N-I-N-E-S-U-R-E.” 

“Hurrah for Willie!” cried Roy, who had 
been putting down the letters as Captain Hardy 
read them off. “ He’s solved the problem. Who 

says boys aren’t any good? I’ll bet you-” 

But Roy was interrupted by his mates. 
“ Read it to us,” they demanded. 

“ It’s a funny message,” said Roy, and slowly 
he read the following: “ King James twenty six 

twenty one twenty four-” Then he stopped. 

“ I can’t read the next words,” he said. 

Captain Hardy took the paper from Roy and 
read the entire message. “ King James twenty 
six twenty one twenty four Balaklavan rendez¬ 


vous nine sure. 




A CHANGE IN CIPHERS 


233 


“ What a queer message,” said Henry. 
“ What does it mean? ” 

“ It means,” said Captain Hardy, “ that the 
Germans have done their very best to deceive us. 
They not only changed their cipher, but they sent 
their message in code. We have read their cipher, 
but we know no more than we did before. We 
can never work out their code. All we can do 
is to guess at the meaning. Our difficulties, in¬ 
stead of being ended, are just beginning. I am 
more and more convinced that this message is 
important.” 


CHAPTER XVIII 


TOO LATE 


HE look of astonishment that appeared on 



A every face at the reading of the message was 
soon succeeded by one of bewilderment. 

“ How are we ever going to find out what it 
means?” demanded Willie. “We can keep 
juggling letters around until we get them into 
the proper combinations to make words out of 
them. But here we’ve got the words. And they 
don’t mean anything to us. And I don’t see how 
we’re ever going to find out what they do mean. 
We couldn’t juggle words around, too, could we, 
Captain Plardy? ” 

“ No, Willie. There is no use trying that. 
The spies know what the words mean, all right 
enough. And nobody else does, unless he has 
the key to the code. All we can do is to guess 
what they mean.” 

“ It will take some tall guessing,” laughed 


234 


TOO LATE 


235 


Roy. “ I don’t even know what two of those 
words mean. Read ’em, Willie—those two long 
ones.” 

Everybody laughed. “ B-A-L-A-K-L-A-V- 
A-N R-E-N-D-E-Z-V-O-U-S,” spelled Willie. 
“ They’ve got me stopped, too. What do they 
mean, Captain Hardy? ” 

“ Balaklavan evidently is an adjective re¬ 
ferring to Balaklava. Does any one of you 
remember that word? You’ve had it in history.” 

“ I know,” said Henry. “ That’s where the 
Light Brigade made its famous charge in the 
Crimean War.” 

“ Good,” said Captain Hardy. “ That’s ex¬ 
actly right. So that word evidently refers to a 
famous battle-ground. Can it be that we have 
stumbled on a diplomatic message instead of one 
meant for these spies? Could it be that this 
message has anything to do with the situation in 
the Balkans, I wonder? ” and Captain Hardy be¬ 
gan to turn the matter over in his mind. 

“ You didn’t tell us what that other word 
meant,” said Roy. 

“ Oh! ” said the captain, with a smile. “ That’s 


236 


THE SECRET WIKELESS 


a word of French origin that means meeting- 
place. Balaklavan meeting-place, Balaklavan 
meeting-place,” repeated the captain. “ This 
certainly must be an important message. The 
Chief ought to know about it at once. But I 
wouldn’t dare telephone it. I’d have to take it 
to him.” 

“ Maybe we could find out what it means,” 
said Roy, “ if only you would stay to direct us. 
Wouldn’t it be great if the wireless patrol-” 

“ Roy,” interrupted the patrol leader, “ I know 
how you feel. You are very loyal to the wireless 
patrol. But this is a case that calls for loyalty 
to Uncle Sam first. The important thing is to 
get the message read—not to have it read by any 
particular persons.” 

“ Let me take the message to the Chief,” sug¬ 
gested Lew. “ I am no good at this sort of 
thing, but I can carry a message as fast as any¬ 
body. Then you could stay here and help the 
others.” 

“ Very well, Lew. Take a copy of the mes¬ 
sage as we caught it, and a copy of the cipher as 
we arranged it. The Chief will learn as much 



TOO LATE 


237 


from them as he would from half an hour’s talk. 
Now hurry.” 

In a few minutes Lew was speeding toward 
Manhattan with the message in his pocket, while 
the remainder of the wireless patrol were drawn 
up about Captain Hardy’s desk, in earnest con¬ 
sultation. 

“ If only we had an up-to-date history,” 
sighed Henry. “ Then we’d know who the 
sovereigns are in the Balkans. All I know are 
Peter, of Servia, and it seems to me that he abdi¬ 
cated or died; and Ferdinand, of Bulgaria; and 
Constantine, of Greece, who abdicated in favor 
of his son Alexander; and the king of Rou- 
mania—isn’t his name Ferdinand, too? ” 

“ Then there is Charles, of Austria,” suggested 
Captain Hardy, “ and the Turkish Sultan, and 
King Victor Emmanuel III, of Italy. But I 
can’t think of any King James. Well, we’ll drop 
the kings at present and go on with the cipher. 
That brings us to three groups of letters— 
twenty-six, twenty-one, twenty-four. I know 
that code makers frequently use arbitrary groups 
of letters or figures to represent given words or 


238 


THE SECEET WIRELESS 


ideas, but I haven’t the slightest notion as to 
whether these figures belong together or are to be 
read separately. And as to what they mean, we 
can only guess. Since they seem to be in connec¬ 
tion with some ruler and something about a 
Balkan meeting-place, they might refer to troops. 
You don’t suppose the Germans are massing 
forces for another drive into Roumania or that 
part of Russia around the Black Sea, do you? ” 

For a little time there was complete silence, as 
each member of the party struggled to remember 
all that he had read about the situation in the 
near East. But none could throw any light on 
the matter. 

“ Well, we will drop the numbers and go on,” 
said Captain Hardy. “ That brings us back to 
the Balaklavan rendezvous. The word rendez¬ 
vous plainly indicates some kind of a meeting. 
A number of people are going to get together 
somewhere. If the place indicated were not so 
evidently in the Crimea, I should think that the 
message might mean that these German agents 
we’ve been watching are summoned to a meeting 
somewhere.” 


TOO LATE 


239 


Again there was a long pause. “ Henry,” 
said Captain Hardy suddenly, “ to whom was 
this message sent, and by whom? ” 

“ It had the same call signals that have always 
been used. It must have been sent from the 
motor-car station and it is intended for the same 
station or stations the other messages were sent 
to. But we don’t know yet where they are.” 

“ What would this motor-car driver, Sanders, 
be sending out a message about the Balkans 
for? ” demanded Henry. “ Is he connected with 
the German diplomatic corps as well as with the 
spy activities? ” 

“ That’s exactly what I was wondering about,” 
replied Captain Hardy. “ I can make nothing 
of it. The only thing I can understand is the 
last part of the message—‘ nine sure.’ Some¬ 
body is to meet somebody somewhere at nine 
o’clock sure.” 

“ If they meet at the Balaklavan rendez- 

What’s that word? I can’t remember, Captain 
Hardy,” said Roy. 

“ Rendezvous.” 

“ Well, if somebody is to meet at some place 



240 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


at nine o’clock, the place can’t be in the Balkans— 
not if the people who meet are the persons who 
received this message.” 

“ You’re right, Roy. And they couldn’t meet 
in Europe, or even very far away in the United 
States, for,” he continued, glancing at his watch, 
“ it is already long past luncheon time.” 

“ Well,” said Henry, “ there wouldn’t be any 
sense in telling these spies about a meeting in the 
Balkans, anyway. So the message must be in¬ 
tended to call them to a meeting themselves.” 

“ It must be so,” assented Captain Hardy. 
“ And if it is so, the situation is serious. Why 
should they want to meet? And why should the 
need be so urgent that they can’t wait to send 
their message by safer channels, but fling it out 
into the air for anybody to pick up and read, if 
he has brains enough to do it? Hello! Here’s 
Lew back again.” And turning to the new 
member of the group, the leader said, “ What did 
the Chief think of your message? ” 

“ He was as puzzled as we were. He said his 
cipher experts were as busy as they could be with 
wireless messages of the utmost importance that 


TOO LATE 


241 


the Germans had sent from Brazil to Berlin and 
that government operators had intercepted. 
But just as soon as he can get a man who knows 
anything about ciphers and codes, he will put 
him at this job.” 

“ Then it’s all the more important that we 
should unravel this thing ourselves. If some¬ 
thing is to be done at nine o’clock, we haven’t a 
moment to lose.” 

Hastily they ate their luncheon, then filed back 
to their living-room, where lay their maps, books, 
guides, and other equipment. 

“We had better clear off these tables and 
desks,” said Captain Hardy, “ so that we shall 
have plenty of desk room. Suppose you pile 
these books on that book-shelf there, Henry. 
And you, Willie, put those maps on the mantel 
over the fireplace.” 

Henry gathered up a huge armful of books 
and hastily dumped them on the book-shelf indi¬ 
cated. They slid down into a heap, but none 
fell to the floor. Henry, in his usual careful 
manner, began to set the books to rights. 

“ Never mind that now,” exclaimed Captain 


242 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

Hardy. “ That can wait until we have more 
time.” 

Willie, meanwhile, was hastily stacking maps 
on the mantelpiece. He did not bother to fold 
them up, but put a weight on them and let the 
sheets hang down toward the floor. In no time 
the desks were cleared, and the little group 
soberly seated before them. 

“ You’ve taken away the paper with the mes¬ 
sage on it,” said Captain Hardy to Henry. 

Henry started for the book-shelves, but Willie, 
who sat nearest the shelves, was there almost be¬ 
fore Henry was out of his chair. He scanned 
the heap of books, looking for the missing paper. 

“ There it is, under that Bible,” he muttered. 

He lifted off the superimposed books, and 
shoved the Bible to one side. The books began 
to slide, but Willie stopped them before they 
poured down to the floor. The Bible he caught 
on the very edge of the shelf, its covers open. 
He thrust the book back, seized the paper, and 
returned to his seat. 

For perhaps an hour the little group worked 
on. Sometimes each labored in silence, busy 


TOO LATE 


243 


with his own thoughts. Again there was eager 
discussion, as one or the other advanced some 
theory or idea as to the meaning of the message. 
Then silence would come again. So the hours 
rolled by. In one of these pauses, Willie sat 
with closed eyes, turning the mystery over in his 
mind. But his brain was tired and other 
thoughts would creep in. Once he caught him¬ 
self thinking of Camp Brady. Again he was 
thinking about the East River, and all the sights 
he had seen on a trip he had made up that stream 
into the Sound. Rigidly he brought himself 
back to his task. But presently his attention 
wandered again. Now he was thinking about 
the book-shelf and the volume he had caught as 
it was slipping to the floor. And then, as though 
a flash of lightning had suddenly illuminated a 
dark place in his brain, he saw the words on the 
open page of the book—words that in his haste 
he had barely glimpsed, but that now came 
vividly to his mind: 

To the Most High and Mighty Prince 

James , 

By the Grace of God 
King of Great Britain , etc. 


244 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


In another instant Willie was on his feet. 
“ There’s one King James that we didn’t think 
of,” he said, “ the King James of the Bible.” 

His fellows laughed. “ He’s dead,” said 
Roy. 

But Willie paid no attention to the comment. 
His look was centred on his captain’s face. And 
his captain’s face was worth watching. Over it 
came that eager look that always marked his 
countenance when he got new light on a problem. 

“ Willie,” he said, “ I can’t see the connection 
offhand, but it may well be that there is one. 
Can anybody think of any connection between 
King James and Balaklava and these spies? ” 

Nobody could. “ The only thing that King 
James is remembered for,” continued Captain 
Hardy, “ is this very Bible—the King James’ 
version, as we call it, in contradistinction to the 
Revised version. But I don’t quite see how we 
can connect him with the rest of the message. 
Read the message over again, Henry.” 

When Henry had read it, Roy said, “ If it said 
Matthew, or Psalms instead of King James, you 
would think that it was a text.” 


TOO LATE 


245 


Captain Hardy leaped to his feet. “ Stupid! ” 
he cried. “ Why didn’t I see it before? Of 
course it’s a text. Bring me the Bible. King 
James, 26, 21, 24,” muttered Captain Hardy, as 
Roy placed it before him. “ That must indicate 
the book, chapter, and verse.” 

He turned to the table of contents and began 
to count the books of the Bible. “ Ezekiel,” he 
announced, when he reached twenty-six. “ If 
our theory is correct, this message refers to 
Ezekiel 21, 24. We’ll soon know whether we’re 
right or not.” 

His fingers trembled as he turned the pages, 
so eager was he. He found Ezekiel, turned to 
the twenty-first chapter, and ran his shaking 
finger down the columns until it rested on the 
twenty-fourth verse. 

“ Listen,” he said, and his companions scarcely 
breathed as he read: “ ‘ Therefore thus saith the 
Lord God, Because ye have made your iniquity 
to be remembered, in that your transgressions are 
discovered, so that in all your doings your sins 
do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to 
remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.’ ” 


246 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


For an instant complete silence followed the 
reading. Then Captain Hardy said, “ Willie, 
you’ve solved the riddle. And it is just as I 
feared. The Germans have been alarmed. 
They know that they are detected. Now every¬ 
thing is plain enough—in a way. They had to 
warn all the members of the gang and they hadn’t 
time to send messages. So they took a chance on 
the wireless. But they used a new cipher and 
resorted to a code. The use of the word ‘ rendez¬ 
vous ’ indicates to my mind that they intend to 
flee. They’re going to meet at the 4 Balaklavan 
rendezvous ’ at nine. We’ve got to find where 
that is and get the secret service men there in time 
to nab them. And the afternoon’s almost gone 
already.” 

Captain Hardy pulled out his watch and 
groaned as he looked at it. “ We’ve got to watch 
these spies, too,” he said. “ Above all things we 
mustn’t let them get away from us. If we can’t 
find out where the Balaklavan rendezvous is any 
other way, we can trail these fellows to it.” 

Then the leader of the scouts turned to Lew. 
“ Hustle down to the pine tree,” he directed, 


TOO LATE 


247 


“ and watch the hawk’s nest. It may already be 
too late. But if anybody is still there and comes 
out, trail him no matter where he goes. You can 
get into touch with me by telephone. Meantime, 
I’ll communicate with the Chief.” 

Lew hurried away and Captain Hardy left 
the room to telephone. He came back with a 
white face. 

“ The Chief hasn’t a man available,” he re¬ 
ported. “ All his men are watching some 
plotters who are trying to burn grain elevators 
and fire shipping. He says it’s up to us and the 
police. So I called Police Headquarters and 
two detectives will be sent here at once. Pray 
Heaven they come in time.” 

Hardly had he finished speaking before Lew 
burst into the room. “ Captain Hardy,” he 
cried, “ I was too late. Just as I reached the 
pine grove, I saw the spy running down the 
slope. He was a quarter of a mile away. I ran 
after him. But before I got near the shore he 
stepped into a motor-boat that was waiting and 
away he went. There were three other persons 
in the boat, and I am sure one was the grocer and 


248 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

one his boy. I had no way of following them, 
so I came straight back.’’ 

Just then the door-bell rang. Their hostess 
announced two men to see Captain Hardy. And 
the two detectives entered. 

“ Too late,” groaned Captain Hardy. “ The 
birds have flown. And we do not know where 
they have gone.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 



VIDENTLY the detectives were little in- 


terested in the case. They asked a few 
perfunctory questions and went away without 
making any effort to intercept the fleeing motor- 


boat, 


“ They remind me of those state police at the 
Elk City reservoir,” said Roy indignantly. 
“ They don’t take any interest in anything they 
don’t do themselves. Or maybe they think the 
matter isn’t worth bothering with because we’re 
only boys.” 

“ No, Roy,” explained Captain Hardy, “ I 
think it must be because we’re working with the 
secret service. The police and the secret service 
are as jealous of each other as two cats; and the 
police don’t want to do anything that will bring 
any credit to the secret service. They might 


249 


250 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


have been able to do something to intercept that 
motor-boat. But I don’t know what we can do. 
What was the boat like, anyway? ” 

Lew was able to give a good description of it; 
but evidently all distinguishing marks had been 
removed from it. It was a craft of perhaps 
thirty-five feet, slender, of light draft, and quite 
certainly built for speed. There was no name 
at either bow or stern, and the boat was painted 
a muddy gray that made it almost invisible at a 
little distance, so well did the color harmonize 
with the color of the harbor waters. Lew had 
watched it until it was almost out of sight; and 
all he knew was that it had started straight out 
through the Narrows, as though bound for the 
ocean. 

“ It looks at first glance,” said Captain Hardy, 
“as though they were going to sea; but they 
couldn’t go far in that craft. Perhaps there is 
some larger vessel there that they hope to reach.” 

He turned the idea over in his mind for a time. 
“ I think it more likely that they are heading for 
some point on land,” he said. “ They are so 
clever at deception that that is most likely to be 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 


251 


the case; and if it is, they may not even be going 
in the direction they are headed for. It will soon 
be dark. Then they could double back unseen. 
It’s my idea that Newark ought to be a good 
refuge for them. It’s a pretty big place, and it’s 
full of German sympathizers—and they can 
reach it the way they’re going. All they 
need to do is to keep right on around this island. 
That will take them to Newark Bay. I wonder 
if that isn’t what they’re up to, anyway? ” 

Willie went over to the mantel and brought a 
large map that showed all the waters of the 
region. He spread it out on the table and the 
group gathered around it, shoulders together, 
heads bent low. 

“ They might be making for Raritan Bay or 
Jamaica Bay,” suggested Henry. 

“ Yes,” replied Captain Hardy, “ but I don’t 
think it likely. Quite evidently they fear pur¬ 
suit, and they will know that they are safest 
where boats are most numerous. And I should 
think that would be in Newark Bay, although I 
don’t really know.” 

“ They could coast along the shores of New 


252 THE SECEET WIEELESS 

Jersey,” said Henry, “ or of Long Island. 
What would they be most likely to do? ” 

“ Ah! ” replied Captain Hardy. “ That’s the 
very question. You know what Sherlock 
Holmes used to say: ‘ Eliminate the impossible, 
and whatever remains, no matter how improb¬ 
able, is the truth.’ I think that we can eliminate 
the possibility of their going to sea. That is 
practically impossible—unless—unless—there’s a 
ship out there waiting for them. If this were 
England instead of America, I’d say that’s ex¬ 
actly what was afoot: that there was a German 
boat somewhere offshore waiting for them. But 
the possibility of there being such a ship here is 
so remote that we can dismiss it.” 

“ If they aren’t going offshore, where are they 
going? ” demanded Lew. 

Everybody laughed. “ That’s what we’ve got 
to find out,” replied Captain Hardy. 

“ I don’t see how,” said Lew hopelessly. 

“ No more do I,” rejoined their leader, “ but 
we’ll have to start with what clues we have and 
try to follow them. All we know is that this 
motor-boat is outward bound through the Nar- 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 


253 


rows and presumably is going to be at the Bala- 
klavan rendezvous at nine o’clock.” 

“ I wish we had a Light Brigade to send after 
them,” sighed Henry, and as the others laughed, 
he began to quote what he remembered of Tenny¬ 
son’s lines that have made the name of Balaklava 
immortal: 


“ 4 Into the jaws of death, 

Into the mouth of hell 
Rode the six hundred.’ ” 

Long ago dusk had come. The lights were 
lighted and the little group of scouts still 
clustered about their maps, searching vainly for 
a clue. Their hostess came to call them to 
dinner. 

“ I am sorry,” said Captain Hardy apologetic¬ 
ally, “ but we are at work on a very grave matter 
and cannot possibly stop for dinner. Could you 
conveniently send us up some coffee and sand¬ 
wiches ? ” 

So, while they munched their sandwiches and 
sipped their hot coffee, the members of the wire¬ 
less patrol continued their search for the missing 


254 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


clue. Occasionally Lew, more restless than his 
fellows, strolled over to the window and stood 
gazing out over the harbor, with its entrancing 
lights. 

“ There goes the Patrol ” he called out sud¬ 
denly, as a boat bearing the distinctive lights of 
the police department slipped down the Narrows, 
while he was at the window. 

Captain Hardy gave an exclamation of annoy¬ 
ance. “Why didn’t I think of that boat?” he 
said savagely. “We might have been able to 
follow the motor-boat if we could have gotten the 
Patrol here. For all we know, she may have 
been near at hand. And she is equipped with 
wireless, too. Well, it’s too late now.” Then 
bitterly he added, “ The man who ordered the 
charge of the Light Brigade wasn’t the only one 
who blundered.” 

“ Is there any place near New York,” suddenly 
demanded Henry, “ named Balaklava or Crimea 
or anything else that suggests Balaklava? ” 

“ Get that atlas from the book-shelves and 
see, Henry,” replied Captain Hardy. “ Look 
through the list of towns, rivers, lakes, etc. And 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 


255 


you, Willie, study the map a while. That seems 
to be your forte. You may find something to 
suggest Balaklava to you.” 

Willie laid the map squarely on the table, and 
while Henry pored over the atlas and the others 
talked and thought at intervals, he began a sys¬ 
tematic survey of the map. And naturally he 
began in the region of the Lower Bay, toward 
which the motor-boat had disappeared. 

Minute followed minute. Dusk turned to 
deep darkness. Captain Hardy opened and shut 
his watch in desperation. Swiftly the time was 
drawing near for the meeting of the spies, and 
the wireless patrol had not only failed at the 
critical moment, had not only allowed the enemy 
to escape, but had lost all track of them. It was 
a bitter thought and Captain Hardy tried to 
shut it out of his mind and centre attention on the 
problem in hand. Henry was still poring over 
names. Willie had finished his methodical ex¬ 
amination of the Lower Bay and was working his 
way northward. He followed the boundaries of 
the harbor up through the Narrows and along 
the Jersey shore, then pursued his quest through- 


256 THE SECBET WIRELESS 

out the length and breadth of Newark Bay. But 
he found nothing suggestive of Balaklava. Back 
to the Bay he traced his route, then slowly 
traversed its waters. Past Bayonne, past Bed- 
loe’s Island, past Jersey City, and up the Hud¬ 
son his pencil slowly moved, as he surveyed every 
name and looked at every turn and angle of the 
shore. Then he came back to the eastern side of 
the Narrows and went north along the Brooklyn 
shore. Past the Erie Basin, past Governor’s 
Island, past the Brooklyn Bridge, past the Navy 
Yard, past Blackwell’s Island, past Ward’s 
Island, past Hell Gate, with its swirling currents, 
and on into the Sound, he traveled in imagination, 
examining every point and word on the map, but 
he saw nothing suggestive. 

The minutes crept on. Eight o’clock had al¬ 
ready struck. Captain Hardy was in a fever of 
anxiety. He could no longer sit still, but was 
pacing the floor. Lew, utterly hopeless of help¬ 
ing, stood at the window, looking out over the 
myriad lights of the harbor. 

“ There’s the Patrol he said. “ She’s coming 
back up the Narrows.” 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 


257 


“ If we only knew where to go, it wouldn’t be 
too late yet,” said Captain Hardy in a tragic 
voice. “It is awful to think that we have 
failed.” In an agony of mind he began to pace 
the floor. 

Henry had finished his perusal of the atlas and 
was thinking desperately over the problem. 
“I’d gladly go where the Light Brigade went,” 
he muttered, “ if only it would take us to those 
spies.” And again he began to quote: 

“ 1 Into the jaws of death, 

Into the mouth of hell 
Kode the six hundred.’ ” 

Hardly had he finished, when Willie gave a 
loud cry. “Hell Gate!” he almost shrieked. 
“ That’s where they are going to meet.” 

Captain Hardy stopped abruptly in his walk. 
The flush of hope crept into his cheek. “ It’s 
far-fetched,” he said, “ but it may be. It’s the 
only chance we’ve got. Can we make it in time? 
Where’s the Patrol , Lew? ” 

“ Right there, sir; almost out of the Narrows.” 

“ Quick, Henry. The wireless.” 


258 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


Henry rushed to the wireless room. Captain 
Hardy strode after him. The others followed. 
With eager, skilful fingers, Henry adjusted his 
instrument and began to flash out the call for the 
police-boat. 

Almost at once he got an answer. As Henry 
wrote down the letters, Captain Hardy leaned 
over his shoulder, his eyes fastened on Henry’s 
pencil. 

“ Tell them the secret service needs them at the 
landing at once, Henry. Tell them to hurry.” 

Then, while Henry was flashing his message 
into the night, Captain Hardy ran to the window 
to see what the Patrol would do. On and on it 
went, as though it had no intention of stopping, 
and cold beads of perspiration stood out on Cap¬ 
tain Hardy’s forehead, and he clasped and un¬ 
clasped his hands in his excitement. On went 
the boat. Captain Hardy tore back to Henry’s 
side. 

“ What do they say? ” he demanded. 

“ They’re coming, sir.” 

Again the captain stepped to the window. 
The little steamer was just beginning to turn. 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 259 

“ Get your hats and coats, quick,” ordered the 
leader. 

In a second the scouts were ready. In an¬ 
other, the little party emerged from the house 
and started pell-mell down the hill in a mad race 
to reach the landing before the police-boat got 
there. 

Boat and boys touched the wharf at almost the 
same instant, and Captain Hardy’s party leaped 
aboard before the steamer had entirely lost her 
headway. An officer stood at the gunwale, peer¬ 
ing through the dark at the figures that swarmed 
aboard. 

“ I’m Lieutenant Gavigan, in command,” he 
said, advancing toward Captain Hardy. “ Are 
you the party that called us? ” 

“ Yes,” replied Captain Hardy. 

A look of astonishment came over the lieu¬ 
tenant’s face. “ Your wireless said we was 
wanted by the secret service,” said the puzzled 
lieutenant, “ but these boys do not belong to the 
secret service. And I don’t know you, either.” 

“ I will explain everything,” said Captain 
Hardy, “ but make haste. We’re after German 


260 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


sj)ies that are to meet at Hell Gate at nine 
o’clock. Crowd on every ounce of steam you 
can.” 

“ Hell Gate! ” said the lieutenant sarcastically. 
“ And do you think I’m going to take you to Hell 
Gate, just on your say-so—you and a crowd of 
kids I don’t know from Adam? What do you 
think would happen to Lieutenant Gavigan if he 
went gallivantin’ round the Bay without orders 
on joy rides like that? Nothin’ doin’.” 

Captain Hardy smothered the indignation he 
felt, and began to explain courteously. “ Lieu¬ 
tenant Gavigan,” he said, “ I am Captain Hardy 
of the United States Medical Reserve Corps and 
these boys are members of the Camp Brady 
Wireless Patrol. Last summer we did the wire¬ 
less work for some of the Pennsylvania troops 
guarding public works, and in the course of our 
duties were fortunate enough to detect and cap¬ 
ture some German spies who were endeavoring 
to blow up a great reservoir and cause another 
flood like that which wiped out Johnstown. For 
the last few weeks we have been helping the 
United States secret service keep track of Ger- 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 261 

man spies in New York, for, as you no doubt 
know, the secret service is short handed.” 

“ Short handed,” sneered the lieutenant. 
“Yes, and short minded, too, to be employin’ a 
parcel of kids. But that’s about as much sense 
as the secret service has got. If they want any 
spies caught, why don’t they call in the cops? 
We’d catch ’em soon enough.” 

Captain Hardy choked down his resentment 
and went on. “ We’re not making any boasts 
as to our abilities, Lieutenant Gavigan,” he said, 
“ but we are doing all we can to help and the 
secret service thought well enough of us to put 
us to work.” 

The police officer looked the captain over 
critically. “ How do I know you are what you 
say you are? ” he asked. “ Where are your 
credentials? ” 

A sudden fear smote Captain Hardy. Were 
all their efforts to come to naught? Were the 
treacherous spies to get away, now, when it 
seemed that they might yet be apprehended? 

“We have never thought credentials would be 
necessary,” he said, “ and we have overlooked the 


262 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


need of providing ourselves with them. But we 
can satisfy you fully. Only hurry, Lieutenant, 
hurry.” 

“ And where should I hurry? ” the latter asked 
truculently. “ You don’t think I’m goin’ to risk 
my head takin’ the likes of you on a joy ride to 
Hell Gate, do you? Nothin’ doin’. You come 
ashore and tell the captain who you are and what 
you want, and if he says Hell Gate, why, you’ll 
get there, and if he don’t, you won’t. And 
that’s all there is to that.” 

Very evidently it was useless to argue with the 
stubborn lieutenant. In despair Captain Hardy 
turned aside, desperately thinking how to meet 
the situation. Argument, he saw, was of no avail 
with this type of man. Force would have to be 
used. But what had he to offer that would im¬ 
press the man? 

“ Captain Hardy,” said Roy, slipping up to 
his commander, “ would our police cards help 
any? ” 

“ The very thing,” said Captain Hardy. “ I 
had forgotten that you boys had them.” 

Captain Hardy hastened back to the com- 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 


263 


mander of the Patrol. “ Lieutenant Gavigan,” 
he said sharply, “ there are more ways than one 
a policeman can lose his head. One is by being 
a fool. Your Commissioner is keenly interested 
in this work of ours and is giving us all the 
assistance he can. Each one of my boys carries 
his personal permission to go where he chooses. 
Roy, show this officer your pass.” 

Roy produced his police card, and the three 
other boys followed his example. 

“ Those cards were given to my boys by the 
Commissioner in person,” said Captain Hardy 
impressively. “ He is keeping in close touch 
with this work. I should not want to have to 
report that you blocked our efforts and made it 
possible for these spies to escape.” 

The change in Lieutenant Gavigan was re¬ 
markable. “ Crowd on all the steam you’ve got, 
Jim,” he shouted to the engineer. Then turn¬ 
ing to Captain Hardy, he said, “ Why didn’t you 
tell me you was on police business? I’ll send a 
wireless message at once for instructions.” 

Captain Hardy raised his hand in protest. 
“Impossible!” he said. “If the Germans 


264 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


should pick it up, everything would be lost. Our 
success depends wholly upon the speed and 
secrecy with which we travel. How much longer 
will it take to reach Hell Gate? ” 

“ A half an hour, anyway,” said the lieutenant, 
who was beginning to look worried. Then he 
added, “ I’m takin’ an awful chance, goin’ up 
there without orders.” 

“ And you’re taking a worse one if you refuse 
to go,” rejoined Captain Hardy sternly. 

The lieutenant wavered. Captain Hardy 
strode into the cabin and seized a piece of paper. 
Lieutenant Gavigan, curious, followed him. 
Rapidly Captain Hardy wrote a message on the 
paper. 

“ Send that to your Commissioner,” he said, 
handing the completed message to the com¬ 
mander of the Patrol. 

Lieutenant Gavigan ran his eyes hurriedly over 
the paper. “ Captain James Hardy, M. R. C.,” 
ran the message, “ and patrol of boys request 
immediate assistance. Everything at stake. 
Send instructions at once.” 

The lieutenant looked relieved. “ The Com- 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 


265 


missioner won’t be at his office at this hour,” 
he said, “ but they’ll know where to reach 
him.” 

“ Then rush it,” said Captain Hardy, “ and 
make every bit of speed you can.” 

He stepped out into the night again. Over¬ 
head myriad stars twinkled brightly. The little 
craft was vibrating from stem to stern under the 
rapid revolution of her engines. She was 
ploughing through the water, throwing up a 
great white wave on either bow. On all sides of 
her vessels were coming and going on their usual 
missions of peaceful industry. Millions of lights 
twinkled in the great buildings of the city and in 
the factories that lined the water-front. But 
Captain Hardy had no eye for the beauties of the 
night or the swelling waves or the stimulating 
harbor scene. He could think of nothing but the 
work ahead of him, of the rendezvous in the dark¬ 
ness at Hell Gate. The little steamer, plough¬ 
ing her way through the water, seemed to Cap¬ 
tain Hardy to be almost motionless, so keen were 
his fears that he would be too late. He pulled 
out his watch and groaned. The boat was well 


266 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


into the East River, but it was already almost 
nine o’clock. In agony of mind he began to pace 
up and down the deck. 

“ Got an answer,” said Lieutenant Gavigan, 
suddenly coming out of the cabin, and he thrust 
a paper into Captain Hardy’s hand. 

The latter stepped toward the light and read 
it. “ Give any assistance requested,” it read. 
“ Thank goodness, that’s settled,” muttered Cap¬ 
tain Hardy. 

Then he turned to the lieutenant, who was now 
more than ready to oblige. “ Can’t you get a 
little more speed out of her? ” he demanded. 

“ I’ll try,” said the boat’s commander, and he 
strode off to the engine room. 

Past the Brooklyn Bridge, past the Man¬ 
hattan Bridge, past the Navy Yard, past fac¬ 
tories and offices and great rows of tenements, 
the little police-boat sped on. But the hands of 
Captain Hardy’s watch sped faster. Past 
Blackwell’s Island, with its long prison build¬ 
ings, past the little lighthouse at its northern end, 
past the darkened area of the East River Park, 
on toward the blackness of Hell Gate with its 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 


267 


frightful swirling waters, rushed the speeding 
craft. And now, drawn by a common interest, 
boys and men alike crowded the bow, and police¬ 
men and scouts stood in a close knot, gazing 
eagerly ahead into the darkness. 

A motor-boat suddenly shot across the path of 
the Patrol . “ Halt! ” cried Lieutenant Gavigan, 
seizing a megaphone. The motor-boat came to. 
Lieutenant Gavigan was about to stop to ex¬ 
amine it. 

“ Go on,” said Captain Hardy tensely. 
“ That’s not the boat—and there’s only one man 
in it anyway. We’re after a gang.” 

Darker became the way. The river broadened. 
The waters grew troubled. High above loomed 
the great arch of the new railroad bridge over 
Hell Gate. A sailing craft drifted silently to¬ 
ward them. Lieutenant Gavigan looked ques- 
tioningly toward Captain Hardy. The latter 
shook his head. 

Again he drew forth his watch and held it 
close to his face. “ Nine ten,” he said, in a voice 
that shook with emotion. 

On rushed the little steamer. It began to turn 


268 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

its nose toward the wicked waters that gave the 
region its name. Then it ploughed into the 
swirls and headed for the smooth reaches beyond. 
No craft of any sort could be seen. 

“ WeTl have to go through,” said the lieu¬ 
tenant. “We can’t turn here.” 

The boat passed under the great bridge and 
on through the seething rapids. It ran on for 
a little distance, then circled and swung back. 
Again it passed through the angry waters, then 
made a wide circuit, steaming slowly along the 
land, while those aboard searched the dark¬ 
ness, peering into every curve and indentation 
of the shore, to try to spy out some sign of life. 
Tugs were shunting car barges, and an occa¬ 
sional steam craft passed, but nowhere was there 
a sign of a motor-boat or of the fugitive 
Germans. 

A great doubt came into Captain Hardy’s 
mind. Could it be that after all they had been 
on a wild-goose chase? He had thought the 
connection between Hell Gate and the Bala- 
klavan rendezvous far-fetched. But it had been 
the one chance left. They had tried the theory 


THE ENEMY ESCAPES 


269 


out—and they were wrong. The wireless patrol 
had not merely lost the Germans. They had 
lost all trace of them. They had failed in the 
crisis. 


CHAPTER XX 


A CLUE FROM THE AIR 

O LOWLY the little police-boat finished her 
circuit, nosing into every dark nook and spy¬ 
ing out every black corner; but blacker than either 
the night or the water was the gloom in the hearts 
of Captain Hardy and his fellow members of the 
wireless patrol. With bowed head the disap¬ 
pointed leader turned to the commander of the 
boat, to tell him to return to his dock. But Cap¬ 
tain Hardy was too loyal to his fellows, too 
resentful of Lieutenant Gavigan’s remarks about 
them to indicate by word or act that he thought 
they had been on a wild-goose chase. So he said 
simply, “We were too late, Lieutenant. They 
have given us the slip. But none the less I thank 
you for your assistance.” 

Then he turned aside and stood peering 
gloomily into the dark waters, that reflected the 

exact shade of his own mind. Appreciating 
270 


A CLUE FEOM THE AIE 


271 


better than his youthful companions the full ex¬ 
tent of the disaster that had befallen them, he 
could not, for the time being, summon up his 
usual fortitude or see any hopeful prospect. 
Now that the spies knew that they were dis¬ 
covered, he felt sure that they would never risk 
the sending of another wireless message. And 
a wireless message was the sole clue by which his 
little patrol might once more pick up the trail of 
the fugitives. 

But Captain Hardy’s disappointment was no 
whit keener than that of his fellows, nor his suffer¬ 
ings any more poignant; yet with the buoyancy 
of inexperienced youth, hope was not entirely 
crushed in the heart of any one of the young 
scouts. So absolute was their faith in their 
leader, so astonishing had been the good fortune 
that so far had attended their efforts, that each 
felt that in some way this present disaster would 
yet be retrieved. And with hope as a motive 
power, each began, in a manner true to his char¬ 
acter, to attack the problem that confronted them, 
to get ready for further service. It was a splen¬ 
did example of the spirit of “ never say die ” that 


272 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


their leader had drilled into them—an example 
that he would be quick to follow, once the shock 
of disappointment had passed away. 

Lew, hopeless of solving the puzzle of the 
spies’ disappearance, was thinking of how the 
scouts should equip themselves if they should be 
called upon for a land pursuit; for at following 
trails and taking care of himself in the open he 
had no superior in the wireless patrol. Roy, 
keen minded as a Sherlock Holmes, was turning 
over in his mind the problem of the spies’ escape, 
trying to reason out what their line of action 
would be in the immediate future. Willie was 
examining a mental landscape to decide the same 
question. With that wonderful facility of 
memory he had acquired by hours of practice at 
Camp Brady, he now called up the maps of the 
neighboring waters he had been studying; and 
in his mind’s eye he could see every point and 
indentation of the shore-lines, every arm of water, 
every inequality of the land as pictured on the 
contour map, and the principal roads of the 
region. And he was asking himself what a party 
of fugitives in a small boat would naturally do. 


A CLUE FROM THE AIR 


273 


Henry, eager as always to learn more about 
the wireless, had ingratiated himself with the 
Patrol's wireless man and was eagerly examin¬ 
ing his instruments and plying him with ques¬ 
tions. At first the operator answered with good- 
natured tolerance as one replies to the queries of 
a child. But when he saw how much Henry 
actually knew, and found that though he was 
only a boy he had already acted as operator at a 
government wireless station, he fell into an 
earnest discussion about the possibilities of wire¬ 
less in police work—for in New York the police 
wireless was still in an experimental stage. Then 
he permitted Henry to clamp on the receivers and 
listen in. 

Henry welcomed the opportunity, for in all the 
weeks they had been watching the Germans, the 
wireless patrol had hardly had an opportunity to 
listen to the myriad voices in the air. They had 
had to shut out all other sounds and tune down to 
the low lengths used by the Germans—and by 
nobody else. They had been like spectators at 
the opera with their ears plugged to shut out the 


music. 


274 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

Now, as Henry eagerly listened in, he caught 
a sharp, whining note that vibrated powerfully 
in his ear. “ There’s the Navy Yard calling,” 
he said, and a deep frown passed over his face, 
for it made him think of submarines and the fail¬ 
ure of the wireless patrol. For a moment he 
tuned to a short length and listened for a spy 
message, as he had done so many times before. 

“ That’s the Waldorf-Astoria talking,” said 
Henry a moment later, and he copied down the 
message and shoved it over to the police oper¬ 
ator. 

Then followed press despatches—stories of 
land and sea, of fires and battles, of shipwrecks 
and the arrest of a spy. And again Henry 
scowled and slid his tuning-coil and briefly 
listened in at lower range. 

Down the river ploughed the little steamer, 
repassing, one by one, the landmarks it had 
passed on its trip northward. As it steamed 
along and the meaning of their failure became 
more apparent to the young scouts, they became 
gloomier and gloomier. But Henry, exulting 
at the opportunity to handle such an outfit, al- 


A CLUE FROM THE AIR 


275 


most forgot their failure, and drank in eagerly 
the gossip of the night. So engrossed was he, 
that he was startled when he heard the order to 
slacken speed, and heard his captain say, 
“ Well, here we are, boys.” 

Reluctantly he removed the receivers. Then, 
as an after-thought struck him, he clamped them 
again to his ears, tuned his coil to a low length, 
and strained his ears in one last search for a for¬ 
bidden voice in the dark. For a moment he sat 
listening vainly. Then, with unwilling fingers, 
he began to take the clamps from his head. But 
suddenly he jammed the receivers back on his 
ears and sat tense. 

“ Hurry up, Henry,” called Captain Hardy. 
“ We’re waiting for you.” 

“ Hush! ” said Henry, lifting a warning hand. 
Then he sat rigid, bending eagerly forward. In 
his ear a call was sounding. It was the old 
familiar call of the motor station. He seized a 
pencil and began to write. A moment later he 
jumped to his feet and went rushing after his 
captain. 

“Here!” he called, thrusting a paper into 


276 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


Captain Hardy’s hand. “ The motor-car station 
just sent this message.” 

“ The motor-car station! ” exclaimed Captain 
Hardy, in astonishment. “ Then Sanders can’t 
be aboard the motor-boat. The Chief said he 
had him covered so closely that he could not 
escape—and evidently he couldn’t.” A moment 
later Captain Hardy stood frowning, trying to 
puzzle out the meaning of it. “I don’t see how 
he could have sent a message,” he continued, “ if 
he is so closely watched that he couldn’t get 
away.” 

“ Perhaps the message will tell us,” suggested 
Roy. 

“ Right again, Roy,” said Captain Hardy. 
“ We’ll hurry to the office and decipher it.” 

On the run they made their way to the subway 
station at Bowling Green. They caught a north 
bound train and shortly afterward swarmed up 
out of the subway and made a rush for the secret 
service offices. 

With hardly more than a word of greeting they 
drew up at a table and laid the paper with the 
message before them. 


A CLUE FROM THE AIR 


277 


“ Forty,” said Captain Hardy, counting the 
letters. “ If they use the same cipher they did 
last time, that’ll make five columns of eight 
letters each.” Rapidly he set down the letters 
in the order indicated, thus: 

T T E N R 
H A S E Y 
G Y U R A 
I L O E B 
N T V R O 
D C Z E H 
I A E V C 
M X D E E 

Then slowly he read off the message: 
" ECHO — BAY— REVERE — RENDEZ¬ 
VOUS—EXACTLY—AT—MIDNIGHT.” 

With a cry of joy Captain Hardy leaped to 
his feet. “ We’ve got another chance,” he said. 
“ Sanders must be going to meet them at Revere 
Rendezvous—wherever that is.” Then, turning 
to a man at the next desk, he inquired, “ Where 
is Echo Bay? ” 

“ At New Rochelle,” said the agent. “ That’s 
where Fort Slocum is.” 


278 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

“Fort Slocum!” cried Captain Hardy. 
“ This may be even more serious than it seems. 
Can this man be spying on the fort, too? How 
far is New Rochelle from here? ” 

“ Eighteen or twenty miles.” 

“ Can we get there by twelve o’clock? ” 

“Sure. Why?” 

“ The spies we are after are to meet at Echo 
Bay, Revere Rendezvous, at midnight. Are 
you sure that we can get there? ” Then he 
glanced at his watch. “ It’s already long past 
ten.” 

The Chief was still at the office. The agent 
went to consult him, and came back for details. 
Captain Hardy stepped into the Chief’s private 
office and made the entire situation plain. The 
Chief sat like a cake of ice, a thinking machine 
immovable and unmoved, listening to the recital. 

“ How many men have you here? ” he asked 
his subordinate, the instant Captain Hardy had 
done talking. 

“ Four.” 

“ Two of you go by automobile, two by motor- 
boat. Divide these boys and take half with each 


A CLUE FROM THE AIR 279 

party. Let those who go by land approach the 
meeting-place on foot and hide. The motor- 
boat must come in behind the spy boat and cut 
off retreat. Be sure you are armed.” 


CHAPTER XXI 


THE CAPTURE OF THE SPIES 


ITHOUT a moment’s delay the party that 



* “ was to go by boat, including Henry and 
Roy, rushed off to the dock where the secret 
service had a motor craft of the racing type, 
capable of making tremendous speed. Almost 
as quickly the other part} r found itself seated in 
a powerful touring-car, speeding northward. 
Captain Hardy, Willie, and Lew were in the 
car, together with the two agents and the driver, 
who was likewise a secret service man. 

Up Third Avenue rolled the big automobile, 
dodging wagons, shooting past motor-cars, dart¬ 
ing by trolleys, its horn shrieking an almost un¬ 
ceasing warning as it charged onward at the very 
top of the speed limit. Never had Willie or Lew 
ridden so fast in crowded thoroughfares, and time 
and again they held their breath as the big car 
rushed toward some obstacle in its path, expect¬ 
ing a crash. But under the skilled hands of the 


280 


THE CAPTURE OF THE SPIES 281 

driver the great machine swept in and out, weav¬ 
ing its way through the traffic as an eel glides 
through water growths. 

The first thrill passed, they turned to their 
captain and the secret service agents who were 
earnestly discussing the situation. Overhead the 
thunder of the elevated trains was such that at 
times they could hardly hear what the men beside 
them were saying. 

“ I am well acquainted with New Rochelle and 
the region of Echo Bay,” said one of the agents, 
“ but I never heard of any Revere Rendezvous 
there. However, the people of the town can 
doubtless tell us. We shall have time to make 
inquiries.” And turning to the driver, he said, 
“ Shove her to the limit, Jim.” 

Already the car was well up-town. Traffic 
had grown steadily less, and as steadily the driver 
increased his speed. Now they were rolling over 
the smooth asphalt at twenty miles an hour. 

“No doubt they could tell us,” replied Captain 
Hardy, “ if there were any such place. But I 
fear that the name is one of the spies’ own mak¬ 
ing,” and he told the story of the Balaklavan 


282 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

rendezvous. “We think that meant Hell Gate,” 
explained Captain Hardy. “ The fact that the 
spies’ motor-boat is now evidently on the Sound 
confirms that belief. But the name was far¬ 
fetched. It took us a long time to work it out. 
This new name may be equally obscure. We 
shall have to decipher it on the way.” 

The motor-car was approaching the Harlem 
River. “ Your Balaklavan rendezvous is only a 
few blocks off there,” said the agent, pointing to 
the east. 

The car rolled up to the bridge and passed over 
the dark waters where tugs were shunting car- 
floats into their docks and churning up white 
foam with their propellers. Thousands of lights 
were reflected in the black depths. In a moment 
the Harlem was behind them, and they were in 
the borough of the Bronx. On they sped up 
Third Avenue. 

The two boys were distracted. They wanted 
to see the sights, utterly new to them, and they 
wanted to hear the discussion of their elders. 
Willie, with that strange faculty of his for noting 
places and locations, kept watching the street 


THE CAPTUEE OF THE SPIES 283 

signs and trying to remember where Third Ave¬ 
nue led to on the map. 

“ There are three places on Echo Bay where 
a motor-boat and a motor-car can easily meet,” 
said one of the secret service men. “ At the 
north side of the harbor entrance is a finger of 
land called Premium Point. On the other shore 
is Huguenot Park. And an arm of the bay runs 
inland all the way to the main street passing north 
through the town.” 

“ Which place would they be most likely to 
select? ” asked Captain Hardy. 

“ Well, they’d hardly try Premium Point be¬ 
cause that is a private estate, and they would have 
difficulty in getting to the water-front.” 

“ Then that limits them to the two others.” 

“ Exactly. And one is as easy to get to as 
the other.” 

Captain Hardy frowned. “ What are we go¬ 
ing to do?” he asked. “We might pick the 
wrong place and miss them. And since there are 
several of these spies in the boat, and they are 
desperate fellows, we’d never dare divide our 
forces. What are we going to do? ” 


284 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


“ Gee! ” said Willie. “ We just passed Two 
Hundredth Street. Some town, eh, with two 
hundred numbered streets? ” 

The car rushed on. In silence the three men 
were considering how they should meet the situa¬ 
tion before them. 

“ If only we could get into touch with our 
motor-boat,” said one of the secret service men, 
“ we could arrange a plan to cover every pos¬ 
sibility.” 

“ We’ve got to find what this Revere Rendez¬ 
vous is,” insisted Captain Hardy. “ Can’t you 
think of anything that would suggest such a 
name? ” 

The three men fell silent, pondering the 
matter. The car swept on. 

“Hello!” said Willie. “We’ve left Third 
Avenue, but we’re going so fast now I can’t 
make out the names on the sign-posts.” 

And indeed they were going. As they ap¬ 
proached the edge of the city limits, where there 
was little traffic and the driver could see far 
ahead, he pressed his foot on the accelerator and 
the great car went roaring through the street at 


THE CAPTURE OF THE SPIES 285 

more than thirty miles an hour. And as they 
drew closer and closer to the open country, the 
man at the wheel rushed them on faster and 
faster. In vain Willie looked at the sign-posts. 
The car darted past them with baffling speed. 
But Willie wanted to know where he was. 

“ What street are we on now? ” he asked, lean¬ 
ing toward the driver. 

“ The Boston Post Road,” said the driver, 
without turning his head. 

Captain Hardy caught the name and his eyes 
flashed. “The Boston Post Road!” he re¬ 
peated. “ Does this go anywhere near New 
Rochelle? ” 

“ Right through it,” said the driver, “ only they 
call it Main Street within the town limits.” 

“ Does it pass near Echo Bay? ” 

“ It’s the very road that meets the arm of the 
bay.” 

Captain Hardy turned from the driver to the 
other secret service men. “ Can you think of 
anything that would connect the name of Revere 
with the point where the bay touches this road? ” 

“ By George! ” cried one of the men. “ You’ve 


286 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


hit it exactly. I had forgotten all about it, but 
there’s a stone marker in a wee bit of a park, put 
up to commemorate the passage of Paul Revere 
on his famous ride. He came down this very 
road, and that marker is almost at the exact spot 
where the road touches the arm of the bay.” 

“Good!” said the captain. “That is prob¬ 
ably the place.” 

“ Beyond a doubt. It’s the logical place, too, 
come to think of it. For if a fellow drove into 
Huguenot Park and found that somebody was 
trailing him, he couldn’t get away. He’d be 
bottled up. But if he stuck to the Boston Post 
Road, he’d have all New England to run to. 
What’s more, there’s a road-house near by, where 
ears can be left. Things couldn’t have been 
made to order any better.” 

“ Then I guess our course is clear,” said the 
other agent. “ We’ll leave our car near by and 
find good hiding-places close to the water at this 
point.” 

Meantime, the motor-boat, breasting the waves 
as though striving for a spqed prize, had borne 
Henry and Roy and their older companions 


THE CAPTURE OF THE SPIES 287 

rapidly back over the path they had so recently 
traversed. Up the East River the craft went 
roaring, under the great bridges, that at night 
seemed only strings of fairy lights arching the 
stream, past prison walls and towering tene¬ 
ments, and on to the swirling rapids so recently 
visited. 

The two boys paid little attention to what they 
were passing. Already they had seen it twice. 
But never had either of them seen a craft like 
that they were in. It was one of those long, low 
racing boats, steered with a wheel like a motor¬ 
car, and slopingly decked over in front to shield 
the driver. And it roared like an aeroplane as 
it tore through the water. For the boys in the 
boat were rushing toward their goal almost as 
swiftly as their comrades on land. 

What most interested Henry and Roy was the 
array of buttons and knobs and other instru¬ 
ments on the dashboard, like the lighting buttons 
and speedometer on an automobile. 

“ I wonder what they are for,” said Roy to 
Henry. “ I never saw a boat like this before.” 

“ Nor I, either,” replied Henry. 


288 THE SECEET WIEELESS 

“ Right you are,” said one of their companions. 
“ There probably isn’t another like it. It’s both 
a motor-boat and an electric boat. Sometimes 
we have to be very quiet about our work and then 
we would never dare go roaring along as we are 
now. You can hear us a mile away. So we 
have an electric motor and storage batteries for 
quiet work. When we run by electricity, we 
don’t make any more noise than a swan.” 

The boys expressed their admiration. “ And 
nobody could see you, either,” said Roy. “ The 
boat’s exactly the color of the water. When it’s 
as dark as this, I’ll bet you couldn’t see it fifty 
yards away.” 

“ Well, you may have a chance to test your 
belief,” said the agent with a smile. 

“ What do you think will happen? ” asked 
Roy. 

“ I don’t know. But when that German 
motor-boat goes into Echo Bay, we’ve got to go 
after it; and we don’t dare be seen, either.” 

“ What’s the bay like? ” inquired Henry. 

“ It’s an irregular little sheet of water with 
several small islands in it; and if these Germans 


THE CAPTURE OF THE SPIES 


289 


go clear in, we’ll nab them easily. But if they 
don’t, we may have a lively chase.” 

On rushed the motor-boat. Past Classon 
Point, past the long projecting finger of land 
known as Throgs Neck, with Fort Schuyler at 
its extremity, then northward again into ever 
widening waters, past Elm Point, and Hewlett 
Point, and Barker Point until they were fairly 
in the wider reaches of Long Island Sound. 

On the right loomed the high and precipitous 
shores of Long Island, hardly visible in the 
cloudy darkness. On the left, far across the 
waving waters, was the unseen ragged coast of 
the mainland, broken by a hundred irregular 
indentations, studded with numberless little 
promontories, and fringed with islands as a 
woman’s throat is girt with a necklace of beads. 
Ahead of them stretched untold miles of gently 
heaving water. And there, too, blazed two 
beacons to point the path for mariners—the 
Sands Point Light, topping the eastern bluff, 
and the fiery eye of Execution Rocks, that reared 
their jagged pinnacles far out from the shore, to 
tear the bottoms of unwary ships. 


290 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


“ We’ll go straight north,” said the man at the 
wheel, “for those spies are without doubt biding 
their time in some sheltering cove among the 
islands over there. And there they will doubt¬ 
less stay until the hour to meet their comrade.” 

He flashed a pocket torch on his watch. “We 
are in good time,” he said. “We shall get there 
well before them. Then we shall have to hide 
and see what happens.” 

Straight up the Sound drove the rushing racer, 
plunging through the rolling swells, tossing the 
spray to right and left. Ahead of it glowed and 
winked the fiery eyes of the lighthouses. Along 
either shore shone innumerable street lamps and 
the lights of late retiring householders. Save for 
themselves the water seemed deserted. The great 
steamers that ply between New England and the 
metropolis had long since passed and vanished in 
the misty darkness to the north. No freighters 
were breasting the waves, no tugs were puffing 
along with strings of barges in their rear. No 
ferry-boats were crossing. And none of the 
legion of sailing craft and motor-boats, none of 
the thousands of pleasure yachts that sometimes 


THE CAPTUEE OF THE SPIES 291 

dot the smiling waters in the daytime, was 
abroad. The little secret-service boat seemed to 
be alone in that vast expanse of water. 

Suddenly the boat careened violently. The 
boys were alarmed, but their comrades merely 
smiled. 

“ We’re turning,” explained the man at the 
wheel. “ Now we’ll go straight into the harbor. 
And it will be just as well if we make less noise.” 

He slowed down his engine and the roaring 
sound died away. The boat fell off in speed, 
but still pushed ahead with good momentum. 
For perhaps a mile the boat advanced. Then 
the driver shut off his engine entirely. 

“ Those fellows might be in Echo Bay itself,” 
he said. “ They couldn’t find a safer place to 
hide than right among the pleasure craft. We 
won’t take any chance of being discovered. 
We’ll just glide in like a shadow and anchor 
where we can watch things.” 

He switched over to his electric drive and the 
boat began to forge ahead again, but with all the 
stealth of a tiger in the jungle. The operation 
of its machinery was noiseless, and only the gentle 


292 THE SECEET WIEELESS 

slap of the waves against the bow gave audible 
evidence of its passage. For a considerable time 
they rode in silence. In the thick darkness the 
shore was almost invisible while the glowing 
street lights that shone here and there served 
only to accentuate the blackness of the night. 
Close together in the cockpit huddled the pas¬ 
sengers, for the air was raw and chilly. 

“ Until we’ve got those fellows safe in hand¬ 
cuffs,” said the man in charge of the party, “ I 
don’t want one of you to speak aloud. And stay 
down in the bottom of the boat where you can’t 
be seen.” 

Noticeably the speed of the little craft fell off. 
It no longer drove through the waves, but slipped 
through them so softly that even the gentle 
splashing at the bow was ended. Presently 
Henry missed the slight vibration, of which he 
had been but semi-conscious, and he knew that 
the pilot had shut off his power completely. 

Now the shores, with their towering trees, be¬ 
gan to loom up uncertainly in the darkness, and 
Henry knew that the boat was slipping into the 
harbor. Presently he became aware of & dark 


THE CAPTUEE OF THE SPIES 293 

spot ahead of them on the water, then another, 
and another; and straining his eyes, he saw that 
before them lay a great company of motor-boats 
and sailing yachts. Very slowly his own craft 
drew nearer, for it had all but lost its headway, 
until it was close to the fleet of pleasure boats. 
Then there was a tiny splash and one of the 
secret service men began to pay out the anchor 
rope over the side. The little boat came to rest, 
and lay quiet, rolling gently, while its occupants 
crouched in the cockpit, listening and peering 
through the thick darkness as they waited. 

Never had either of the boys been in such a 
situation before, and the strangeness, the mys¬ 
teriousness of it impressed them powerfully. 
All the sights and sounds of the day were missing 
and in their place arose a host of unfamiliar sensa¬ 
tions. Mist was rising all about them, making the 
darkness denser and more impenetrable. Not a 
star was to be seen. The shore-line was only a 
vague, uncertain black bulk. As they huddled 
silently in the bottom of the little boat, they be¬ 
came conscious of the voices of the night; but 
these voices were different from the nocturnal 


294 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

whisperings of field and forest which they knew so 
well. Now they heard only the lisping of water. 
Little wavelets broke gently against their slender 
craft. And all about them rose the musical 
whisper, the liquid murmur of waters gently 
lapping the rocks or swelling against the sides 
of boats. At times the breeze could be heard 
sighing softly through the rigging of near-by 
yachts. It was weird and uncanny. 

And the sensations that came of it were strange 
and powerful. In the forest the young scouts 
had lain in wait for enemies, had hidden in the 
darkness to trap desperate foes, had watched, 
with bated breath and pounding hearts, for 
shadowy forms to appear. They were not un¬ 
accustomed to danger and the suspense of an 
ambush. But in the forest they had solid ground 
beneath their feet. Trees and other tangible 
objects were all about them. But here every¬ 
thing seemed unreal, almost ghostly. The dark¬ 
ness of the forest was no blacker than the night 
here in the open. And yet there was no shady 
covering of leaves to shut out the light—only a 
strange, weird, unearthly canopy of mist. In 


THE CAPTURE OF THE SPIES 295 

the forest innumerable tree trunks offered con¬ 
cealment to approaching enemies; yet here in the 
open with nothing tangible to obstruct the vision, 
it was almost impossible to see anything, strain 
the eyes as one might. 

A feeling of awe came over the young scouts, 
and both were conscious of a creepy sensation. 
So unreal appeared their surroundings that it 
seemed as though anything coming out of the 
mist would be kin to it, unreal and ghostly. So 
they sat in the bottom of the boat, only the tops 
of their heads showing above the low gunwale, as 
they waited in breathless silence, peering through 
the night, listening with cocked ear, and strain¬ 
ing forward to catch every slightest sound. 

Under the covered bow of the boat, the driver 
flashed his torch for a second on the face of his 
watch. 

“ Eleven forty-five,” he muttered. “ There 
ought to be something doing soon.” 

A minute passed. The silence was unbroken. 
Another minute went by. The sighing of the 
wind in near-by riggings was the only audible 
sound. Again a minute passed. No sound of 


296 


THE SECEET WIKELESS 


boat or boatmen broke the gloomy silence. Once 
more the pilot peeped stealthily at his watch and 
gave a muttered exclamation. A feeling of un¬ 
easiness took possession of the watchers. They 
stirred nervously. Dark fears crept into their 
minds. Had something happened to alter the 
plans of the spies? Had Sanders sent another 
wireless message to his comrades, naming another 
meeting-place? Henry’s heart almost stopped 
beating at the thought that it might well have 
happened. Bending toward his comrade, he 
whispered his fears. His voice trembled as he 
spoke. Boy uttered a low exclamation of dis¬ 
may. Then there was silence again, and the four 
sat listening with strained attention—listening 
for what they feared they would never hear. 

And then they heard it. From far down the 
Sound came the reports of a rapidly beating 
marine motor. At first the noise was so faint as 
scarcely to be audible, like the dropping of a pin 
on a bare floor. Then the fog seemed to magnify 
the sound and it became suddenly louder. Then 
it died away again, but it was more distinct than 
it had been at first. A minute passed. Notice- 


THE CAPTUEE OF THE SPIES 297 

ably the sound grew in volume. Another minute 
passed. Distinct now was every beat of the 
motor. With lips parted, heads slightly turned, 
and eyes peering through the dark, the watchers 
waited with beating pulses as the sound came on. 
There could be no doubt it was made by a fast 
craft. And there could be no doubt that the 
boat was rushing northward close to the shore. 
Was it the boat they waited for? Would it turn 
at the harbor entrance? Or would it go tearing 
onward, leaving them in despair? 

Now it was almost abreast of the harbor’s 
mouth. Another minute, a few seconds, would 
tell the story. And not one of the watchers 
breathed as they hung on the sound. On and on 
it came, until the scouts knew that it was directly 
abreast of the channel. Would it turn? Would 
it enter the harbor? Or would it rush straight 
by? Unable longer to control himself, Roy 
stretched out his hand and gripped Henry’s 
shoulder. And Henry, like himself, was all 
atremble. The secret service men stirred nerv¬ 
ously. But nobody said a word. 

Then the passage of the sound seemed to end. 


298 


THE SECEET WIEELESS 


It was no longer rushing by. It seemed station¬ 
ary. But momentarily it grew in volume. It 
was coming straight toward the watchers. The 
boat had entered the harbor. A sigh of relief 
escaped every lip. 

“Up with your anchor,” whispered the pilot, 
“ before he shuts off his power.” 

His companion leaned stealthily over the side 
and rapidly paid in the rope, lifting the light 
anchor over the gunwale and cautiously stowing 
it in the bottom. And he was none too soon. 
Hardly was the anchor aboard before the roaring 
sound ceased and the oncoming boat approached 
with lessened speed. But the scouts’ boat rode 
free, ready for instant work. 

“ Down with you,” whispered the pilot. 
“ Keep your heads below the gunwale till they’re 
past.” 

The party crouched lower. On came the spy 
boat. Its muffled engine beats were hardly 
louder than the pounding of the hearts that 
watched. It drove steadily forward. Now it 
was a few fathoms astern. Now it was abreast. 
Now it had passed. Stealthily four heads slipped 


THE CAPTURE OF THE SITES 299 

above the gunwale of the scout boat. The spy 
craft was already lost in darkness. The pilot 
grasped his wheel. He turned a switch and the 
boat began to vibrate silently. Then it moved 
forward, gathering momentum with every 
second. Under the covered deck the other agent 
flashed a light on his watch. 

“ Eleven fifty-eight,” he whispered. “ They 
figured it down close.” 

On went the boat. The craft ahead of them 
was still invisible though but a few hundred feet 
distant. But by peering sharply at the water, 
the pilot could see where it had passed. The 
surface was still agitated. Faintly came the 
sound of the muffled motor. The pilot increased 
his speed, but no sound came from his boat. 
Like a ghost it glided through the dark waters. 

“ Look sharp,” whispered the pilot. “ Let me 
know if you see them. We’ve got to get as close 
to them as we can, and yet we must not be seen.” 

On went the spy craft. It slid past the park. 
The street leading to that was faintly illumined 
by occasional lights. 

The pilot uttered a low exclamation of alarm. 


300 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


“ If they look back,” he whispered, “ those lights 
will betray us. We’re right between them and 
the spies.” 

Sharply he swung his craft to the right, crowd¬ 
ing close to the shallow waters that edged the 
channel. If he ran into the mud flats disaster 
might result. But to stay where they would be 
silhouetted against the street lights was to court 
discovery. He had chosen the lesser of two 
evils. 

On they went. Not yet had they come in sight 
of the fugitive craft in front of them. The pilot 
increased his speed, leaning anxiously forward 
as he peered through the darkness. Over the 
sides of the boat his fellows craned their necks, 
searching the blackness for a glimpse of the 
quarry. 

Suddenly they became aware that the motor 
ahead of them had stopped. Then masses of 
shadow seemed to close in on either hand, making 
the water itself darker than ever. The boat 
ahead had turned off its power and was pro¬ 
pelled only by the momentum it had gained. 
Instinctively Roy laid his hand on the pilot’s 


THE CAPTUEE OF THE SPIES 


301 


shoulder. But the latter had already stopped 
his engine. 

As silent as a shadow the boat slid forward. 
Suddenly Roy detected what he was looking for. 
At the same moment a high bank loomed up 
directly before them. The craft ahead turned 
toward the right and slipped along the narrowing 
channel. A few yards further on, it came to 
rest, its nose lying softly against the muddy 
shore. Before it the steep bank led upward to 
an open, level space that both Roy and Henry 
felt instinctively was a public highway; for on 
either hand, though at many rods’ distance, could 
be seen the glow of a lamp that was invisible 
itself. 

The scout boat also came to rest, its momentum 
overcome by the resistance of the water. Like a 
shadow it lay, not more than fifty yards from the 
waiting spy craft. Crouching low behind the 
gunwale, its four occupants held their breath as 
they watched the party in the boat ahead. As¬ 
sisted by the faint glow of the distant street 
lamps, they could vaguely make out the forms 
of their quarry; while the darkness of their 


302 THE SECRET WIRELESS 

own background rendered them practically in¬ 
visible. 

But no one in the spy boat was looking behind 
him. All were straining their eyes for the man 
they had come to meet. Excepting for the 
gentle voices of the night there was not a sound. 
Then a whistle rose from the spy boat—a short, 
sharp note thrice repeated. From the darkness 
an answer sounded a dozen rods distant. Then 
footsteps were heard, as some one picked his way 
uncertainly along the sloping bank. Suddenly 
the footsteps ceased and stillness reigned. Roy 
instantly comprehended the fact that the person 
approaching had paused to listen. His heart 
gave a leap of joy. He himself had heard no 
alarming noises, but he instantly guessed that 
something had caught the ear of the stranger. 
And Roy knew that his companions who had 
come by motor-car must have made these sounds. 
Trembling with excitement, he gripped Henry’s 
shoulder. 

On came the man. Now the scouts could 
vaguely distinguish his form. He called in a low 
voice, and some one in the spy boat answered. 


THE CAPTUEE OF THE SPIES 303 

Suddenly the man turned sharp about. From 
the darkness behind him came the unmistakable 
sound of a pebble kicked by a human foot. In 
the opposite direction a stone rolled down the 
bank and splashed noisily into the water. With 
an oath, the man on the bank turned and ran to¬ 
ward the motor-boat. To right and left in the 
darkness came the scurrying of feet and the 
command “Halt!” The fugitive leaped for¬ 
ward. Frantically the men in the spy craft were 
trying to head their boat about. The fugitive 
reached it and leaped aboard. Then he turned 
to face the figures rushing toward him. At the 
same instant the scout boat suddenly moved for¬ 
ward. From the spy boat a pistol-shot rang 
out. Before another could follow, an electric 
torch was shining full on the spy craft, and the 
agent in the scout boat was covering the fugitives 
with his automatic. 

“ Drop that gun! ” he commanded. “ Hands 
up, or I’ll fire! ” 

Taken by surprise, the man who had just 
boarded the craft let his weapon clatter to the 
floor. And in the sudden illumination Henry 


304 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


saw with exultation that the man was the motor¬ 
car driver, the German agent, Sanders. 

“ Hands up! ” repeated the secret service man 
imperatively, noticing that one of the fugitives 
was crouching in the bottom of the boat with his 
hands hidden. In reply the man straightened 
up. Like a flash his arm shot out and a pistol 
cracked. But before a second bullet could fol¬ 
low, a form leaped into the shallow water and a 
great fist shot into the man’s stomach, doubling 
him up like a jack-knife. The same hand then 
grasped the nose of the spy craft and dragged 
it toward the shore, while the pilot of the scout 
boat brought his craft close beside that of the 
spies. Other torches flashed in the darkness, and 
one by one the fugitives were manacled— 
Sanders, and the spy from the cliff, and the Ger¬ 
man grocer, and his errand boy, and a stranger 
who ran the boat. 


CHAPTER XXII 


A TASK ACCOMPLISHED 

'T'WO hours later the party was grouped 
around Chief Flynn, who had remained in 
his office to learn the result of the raid. Both 
motor-boats had been left in charge of the New 
Rochelle road-house keeper, and the entire party 
had returned to New York in the two motor¬ 
cars—the secret service motor and Sanders’ car, 
for Sanders had left it at the road-house and 
slipped away into the darkness at midnight. 
The clerk from Hoboken was under arrest, too. 
He had been taken up by the man who was 
watching him. Sanders had eluded his shadow 
by leaving his car late in the afternoon, at a 
garage, ostensibly to have it washed, and by later 
leaving his house surreptitiously in the dark. 
He had not been able to reach the Balaklavan 

rendezvous in time to join his companions. But 
305 


306 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


they had a wireless equipment aboard their boat 
and he had made a later appointment with them. 
And, even as Captain Hardy had suspected, he 
had been nosing around Fort Slocum in the dark¬ 
ness. 

But this was all the secret service ever learned 
as to the operations of this gang of wireless spies. 
The prisoners refused to name those higher up, 
and the Chief could only guess whose might be 
the master minds behind the plot. 

As for the various wireless agents who were 
relaying the spy messages to Mexico, several 
were caught by decoy messages and shared the 
fate of Sanders and the others. 

Even the mystery of the sudden flight of 
Sanders and his crew was cleared up. Follow¬ 
ing the Chief's orders, his men on the border had 
taken the three silver coins away from the Mex¬ 
ican. And, sure enough, the coins contained 
messages. One was the message from New 
York concerning the sailing of transports. The 
other messages were about army secrets, and it 
is not yet known where they came from or how 
they got into the hands of the Mexican. 


A TASK ACCOMPLISHED 307 

The latter protested violently when asked for 
his silver dollars, and they had to be taken from 
him by force. The next day one of his guards 
discovered that the left cuff of his shirt was 
missing. The shirt had been intact when he 
was arrested. No trace of the cuff could be 
found anywhere. The window of the room 
where the Mexican was confined overlooked a 
public street. And it was believed by the secret 
service men that the spy had written a message 
on his cuff in some way and dropped it out of 
the window to a confederate. Thereupon a 
warning had been flashed back along the wire¬ 
less line—a warning message in the new cipher 
that had so puzzled the lads of the wireless 
patrol. 

“ It’s all clear enough now,” sighed Willie, 
when the story had been put together, “ but when 
you have only one piece of a jig-saw puzzle you 
can’t make much out of it. And one piece was 
about all we had for a long time. I see it all 
now, but there’s one thing I don’t yet under¬ 
stand. Why didn’t they use a more difficult 
cipher? ” 


308 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


“ I suppose,” explained the Chief, “ that this 
very pursuit and capture of the spies answers 
that question. They knew that if the secret 
service picked up their messages, we could sooner 
or later decipher anything they sent. But even 
a very simple cipher might baffle one unac¬ 
customed to such things. Always there was the 
danger that some one would pick up their mes¬ 
sages. So they chose ciphers that would bother 
the ordinary man but that they themselves could 
read readily. They didn’t dare use a cipher that 
would require a long time to unravel, because 
they foresaw that they might have to flee on short 
notice, just as it happened.” 

“ I see,” said Willie. 

“ And now,” said the Chief, “ I want to tell 
you boys and your good leader here how much 
you have done for me and your country. I didn’t 
have faith in your accomplishing much, but I 
thought that you might be able to pick up wire¬ 
less messages, if any were abroad, and so I agreed 
to take you. You see we were almost desperate 
over the situation. We knew what was going on, 
but we were so terribly short handed that we 


A TASK ACCOMPLISHED 309 

could not spare men to run the spies down. I 
think that we shall have no more trouble. The 
system is broken up. If we do have trouble, I’m 
going to send for you boys at once. Meantime, 
you can now go back home, knowing that few 
boys have done as much for America and Free¬ 
dom as you. I am more grateful to you than I 
can tell you.” 

The little wireless patrol passed out into the 
night, its labors ended. Now that the excite¬ 
ment was past, the boys realized how tired and 
sleepy they were. As they crossed the Bay to 
their temporary home on Staten Island, they had 
their last view of the harbor. Now it was al¬ 
most silent. Only a few boats were ploughing 
through its waters. The great office-buildings 
were dark. The fiery lights of the city were ex¬ 
tinguished. But bright above the Bay flamed the 
torch of Liberty. There, in that flickering light, 
was symbolized the thing that millions of men 
were giving their lives to protect—the greatest 
heritage of the ages. And as the boys from 
Central City looked at the symbolic illumination, 
their hearts beat exultantly and their eyes grew 


310 


THE SECRET WIRELESS 


dim with joy at the thought that they, too, had 
been able, through months of self-denial and rigid 
self-discipline, to prepare themselves for the task 
that was now so happily ended. 


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the prosperity of the country. Intensely interesting and full of valu¬ 
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The Boys’ Book Shelf 

( Continued ) 

The object of this series is to give a high grade, 
attractive and interesting series of books for boys 
on up-to-date subjects and at a popular price 

Each volume $1.25 net 


By Letvis E. Theiss 

In Camp at Fort Brady—A Camping 
Story 

The country around Fort Brady is rich in historical interest and 
the month’s camping trip of a party of boys with a competent guide 
serves to develop a story which is full of information. 820 pages 


His Big Brother 

A story of the Struggles and Triumphs of a Little Son of Liberty 

A story of the “Big Brother” movement and interesting both to 
young and old alike. This great “Big Brother” movement is espe¬ 
cially interesting to all and shows how the other half live and what 
is being done to help and uplift them. 820 pages 


Lumberjack Bob 

A Tale of the A!leghanie3 


y oove h crni/jL 

A volume teeming with adventure, picturesque information and an 
intimate knowledge of animal life. It is the picture of a great 
modern lumber camp with its gigantic flume and splash dam as well 
as of the conservation of the forest and the overcoming of those who 
tried to prevent the harvesting of the lumber. 318 pages 




By Com. Thos. D. ParXer, U.S.N. ( retired) 

Young Heroes of the American Navy 

Being stories and adventures of the most noted young heroes 
of our navy , 

The naval history of our country has developed many young men 
who through patriotism have performed many acts of daring heroism 
and whose names are in the hall of naval fame. 

Many and many a boy will become better acquainted with the 
naval history of his country through reading the wonderful biograph¬ 
ical sketches contained in this volume. 820 pages 





Something To Do, Boys 

Each volume illustrated with over 125 illustrations 

By special arrangement with the “Something To Do” magazine 
this complete volume adapted for boys has been issued, the material 
collated, grouped and edited with the'interest of the boys in view, 
as well as its adaptability to their needs. This volume marks the 
highest point of efficiency in books with the “Something To Do” idea. 

250 pages 




The Boys’ Book Shelf 

( Continued ) 

Up-to-date Stories on Popular Subjects 

Each volume $1.25 net 


“By Walter “Pritchard Eaton 

Boy Scouts in Glacier Park 

No part of the Rocky Mountains offers any more beautiful scenery 
or opportunities for out-door adventure than does Glacier Park. 
The knowledge the two boys possessed from their years of boy scout 
activity was brought into good service when they found themselves 
landed at the gateway of this great Park. 

!By Thos. V. Parser, Com. U. S. N. 

The Spy on the Submarine 

The wonderful submarine campaign now being waged commands 
the attention of the whole world. Com. Parker, because of his 
knowledge of submarines and their activities, here gives an accur¬ 
ate and thrilling account of the work of the American submarine 
destroyers. 

The Cruise of the Deep Sea Scouts 

Deep sea scouting is one of the most important activities of the 
boy scout organization, and the call of the sea is as strong as the 
call of the woods or the mountains. 

:By Lewis E. Theiss 

The Secret Wireless 

The wireless patrol were officially called upon by the government 
to serve their country, and through watching and spying, listening 
in and following, they became of great service when Uncle Sam 
began shipping his boys across. 

The Wireless Patrol at Camp Brady 

A story of how the boy campers, through their knowledge of wire 
less, “did their bit.” At the outbreak of the war, this patrol at 
Camp Brady saw their opportunity of service to their country. 

:By Hugh C. Weir 

The Young Telephone Inventor or 
Following the Wire 

This is a story of how a boy worked his way up and became one 
of the links in the development of this service. Pluck, courage and 
mental alertness served to guide and encourage him and it is a 
pleasure to realize that although the story is fiction, yet the char¬ 
acters are today in the telephone service “over there.” 





Bp Commander Edw. L. Beach, U.S.N. 


, Ralph Osborn—Midshipman at An* 
napolis 

A STORY OP ANNAPOLIS LIFE. 336 paste 

Midshipman Ralph Osborn at Sea 

A STORY OF MIDSHIPMAN LIFE AT SEA, AND 
CONTINUING “ RALPH OSBORN —MIDSHIPMAN 
AT ANNAPOLIS.” 360 pages 

Ensign Ralph Osborn 

THE STORY OF HIS TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS 
IN A BATTLESHIP’S ENGINE ROOM. 338 pages 

Lieutenant Ralph Osborn Aboard a 
Torpedo Boat Destroyer 

BEING THE STORY OF HOW RALPH OSBORN 
BECAME A LIEUTENANT AND OF HIS CRUISE 
IN AN AMERICAN TORPEDO BOAT DESTROYER 
IN WEST INDIAN WATERS. 342 pages 

The “OSBORN” books show the steps of advancement in the 
American Navy, from Cadet to Lieutenant, with a true picture of naval 
life as it is. The information given is authentic-, and many of the 
related incidents were actual occurrences. They are books of infor¬ 
mation and adventure combined. 

Such stories as these are not only interesting to the young people but 
carry with them an insight into naval life which will make the reader 
have more respect and appreciation of the work of Uncle Sam's navy. 
They are first-class stories for boys—clean, good, and worthy of a 
place in the home, private or school library. 

• 

“These are the best stories on the United States Navy which have 
ever been written. They give a clear insight into the workings of this 
important branch of American government and the characters are true 
to life as befits a book written by such a man as Commander Beach, 
who has enjoyed an enviable career ever since he entered the United 
States Navy.’ —New York Times. 

These Volumes are all fully illustrated 
Trice, Cloth, $1.35 net each 


W. A. WILDE CO. Boston and Chicago 





By Everett T. Tomlinson 

War of the 
Revolution Series 

Each Volume Fully Illustrated 
Price, Cloth, $ 1.35 net each 

Every boy who has ever read these his¬ 
torical stories by Dr. Tomlinson will say 
that this series of books is one of the best 
which has ever been written, for the stories 
are patriotic, interesting, and instructive. 
The heroes in each of the books are re¬ 
sourceful and devoted to the best interests 
of their country. Any boy who has never 
read these stories has much to look for¬ 
ward to. 

The series consists of four volumes :— 

Three Colonial Boys. A Story of the Times of 76 

Three Young Continentals. A Story of the 
American Revolution. 

Washington’s Young Aids. A Story of the 
New Jersey Campaign of 1776-1777. 

Two Young Patriots; or, Boys of the Frontier. 
A Story of Burgoyne’s Invasion. 




By Everett T. Tomlinson 

Author of the “War of the Revolution Series’* 

“The Colonial Series” 


With Flintlock and Fife 

A STORY OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN 
WARS AND THE BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE 
IN 1755. 856 pp. 

The hardships, privations and struggles through which the 
early colonists passed are graphically described in this story. 
Dr. Tomlinson’s boys are full of life and the experiences 
which they encounter and the services which they render to 
their country are thrilling and most praiseworthy. 

The Fort in the Forest 

THE STORY OF THE FALL OF FORT WILLIAM 
HENRY IN 1755. 341 pp. 

This volume takes its readers through the French and 
Indian Wars and is full of the adventurous life of the times. 
It covers the many early engagements which took place dur¬ 
ing this period and which proved to be the foundation stones 
upon which was built the spirit of 1775. 

A Soldier of the Wilderness 

A STORY OF ABERCROMBIE’S DEFEAT AND 
THE FALL OF FORT FRONTENAC IN 1758. 
The third volume in the “Colonial Series.’’ 357 pp. 

Generals Abercrombie, Howe, Putnam, and Montcalm, 
together with the leaders of those times, are the characters 
introduced, and all together it makes a stirring story of patri¬ 
otism and adventure. 

The Young Rangers 

A STORY OF THE CONQUEST OF CANADA. 
851 pp. The fourth and concluding volume in the “Colo¬ 
nial Series.” 

It carries the history of our country down to the overthrow 
of the French. It is not only the story of Wolfe and his 
famous assault upon the citadel of Quebec, but it also takes 
up the history around Ticonderoga and Crown Point. 

Each Volume is Fully Illustrated. Price, $1.35 net 


W. A. WILDE COMPANY 
Boston and Chicago 





£F$y William DrysJale 

The Famous 

“Brainand Brawn” Series 

Wo boy should grow up without reading these books 


The Young Reporter 

A STORY OF PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE. 300 PP . 

A genuine boys’ book for genuine boys. Full of 
life, clean, clear cut and inspiring. It will enlist the 
interest of every stirring and wide-awake boy. 

The Fast. Mail 

THE STORY OF A TRAIN BOY. 328 PP . 

The story of the adventures of a boy who fought 
his way to success with clean grit and good sense, 
accomplishing what is within the power of every 
American boy if he sets about it. It is full of move¬ 
ment, sound in sentiment, and wholesome in 
character. 

The Beach Patrol 

A STORY OF THE LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. 318pp. 

A spirited picture of the labors and dangers to 
which members of the life-saving service are ex¬ 
posed and which few realize. 

The Young Supercargo 

A STORY OF THE MERCHANT MARINE. 352 PP . 

This book has all of the interest of ‘ ‘ Oliver 
Optic’s * ’ books, with none of their improbabilities. 

The Volumes are Fully Illustrated. Price, $1.35 each. 


W. A. WILDE COMPANY 

Boston and Chicago 









The Girls’ Book Shelf 


Popular Stories of School and Camp Life 

Bach volume $1.25 net 


By Amy E. Blanchard 

Elizabeth , Betsy and Bess 

Miss Blanchard needs no introduction to girls. Her stories have 
been read for years and Elizabeth, Betsy and Bess are just such 
characters as every girl enjoys reading about. 284 pages 

Elizabeth, Betsy and Bess — 
Schoolmates 

This is the story of the school days of the three girl chums and 
shows the individual development of each one. Every chapter is 
full of the interesting experiences dear to the hearts of girls of this 
age. 836 pages 

The Camp Fire Girls of Brightwood 

A STORY OF HOW THEY KINDLED THEIR FIRE 
AND KEPT IT BURNING 

What the Boy Scout organization means to the boys, Camp Fire 
Girls means to their sisters. It is a well grounded organization, 
having high aims of helpfulness and personal service. 809 pages 

Fagots and Flames 

A STORY OF WINTER CAMP FIRES 
This is a companion volume to “The Camp Fire Girls of Bright- 
wood,” but absolutely independent of it. The author has carried 
along the characters of the former story. 306 pages 

In Camp with the Muskoday Camp 
Fire Girls 

A STORY OF SUMMER CAMP FIRES BY CABIN 
AND LAKE 

It is full of the experiences of a happy group of girls representing 
different types of individuality. It conveys a true picture of Camp 
Fire life, weaving into it much of the Camp Fire ceremonials such 
as appeal to every vigorous girl, particularly to those who follow 
the "Law of the Camp Fire.” 810 pages 

A Girl Scout of Red Rose Troop 

A STORY FOR GIRL SCOUTS 

Today the girl scouts are doing their share in what has to be done. 
They are looked upon as a national organization, which tends, not 
only to the development of the girls, but also offers opportunities for 
practical and patriotic service. 820 pages 





















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